#leonardo reader insert

Leo was a mutated turtle stuck in the sewers hiding away from humans, hearing that you would correctly assume that he wouldn’t be too interested in flowers. Frankly he had better things to be doing than trying to scrounge up some plants and try to find a way to keep them alive in a place with almost to none natural sunlight. Sure, Donnie definitely had some sort of special lamps that basically did the same as the sun for plants since he did have an interest in agriculture and botany but that was Donnie. Leo didn’t particularly care about these things.

Leo loved video games, movies and don’t tell the others but he did actually enjoy training and honing his skills. He just didn’t particularly liked to get up for training but he did immensely enjoy the results of it.

So, why was it that he was currently looking through an old geology book where he stored his pressed flowers? Leo? Pressing flowers? This was definitely not a very Leo hobby if you asked others. Not for the teleporting Ninja Master that managed to send big alien gum looking monsters back to a prison dimension with the help of his equally skilled family years ago.

And Leo would agree. Normally he’d admit immediately that this was not his cup of tea, so to speak. Flowers were pretty but that’s about it.

Then how did he manage to accumulate a small collecting of a colorful array of flowers?

That answers was Y/N.

Y/N was quiet and introverted. The brothers met her when they were running away from the villain of the week only find a very scared human hunkering down in an alleyway, hugging a thick book against her chest.

Humans in New York? Normal. A human in the Hidden City? Not so much. Not impossible but not normal.

When the villain of the week inevitably caught up with the brothers, they had no choice but string along this obviously out of place human. After some smart thinking on Leo’s part, Mikey would argue with him about this because he was the one who apparently gave him the idea to lead the monstrous yokai towards the pirate bay for the pirates to deal with it in their anger when he destroyed their ship mast, they dealt with the villain and could deal with the human.

No surprise there Y/N wound up in the Hidden City accidentally and was immensely overwhelmed when they were suddenly surrounded by a myriad of mythical and magical beings. Obviously the brothers explained to her what was going on and that she was actually kind of safe as long as she just left most yokai in peace. They then helped her back to New York and since it was already daytime Raph called April to ask her if she could walk the very rattled Y/N back to her apartment.

Honestly Leo should have predicted that April took the chance to befriend the human since Y/N now knew that mutants, yokais and a hidden city beneath New York existed. He knew April had no qualms about having mostly non-human friends, but it must be still nice to have a friend with whom she can go out for food and doesn’t need to worry about their disguise, and should she get a call that one of the Hamatos needed her help with something, she didn’t need to come up with a lie. Most of the time anyways. Sometimes the brothers did stupid stuff she just didn’t want to bombard the timid Y/N with.

It didn’t take long for Y/N to come visit the Hamato household together with April now and again. It took some time and even convincing but she even begun visiting them all on her own. Her shyness usually stopped her from doing so.

This shyness was also the reason why Leo had basically a full bouquet of flowers hidden inside this old and forgotten geology book.

As they soon learned Y/N was shy but loved flowers. Whenever the brothers or April did something nice for her for example, she gifted them a flower. It took Donnie a moment but he soon realized that she gave them these flowers depending on their meaning. This way she could express things like trust and happiness and even her support while her voice failed due to her nerves.

Mikey immediately rolled with this using his culinary talents to do the same for her. When she felt down, he made food to soothe and calm her down. Often cooking her favorite dishes especially when she fought through her shyness and managed to do things like call the bank since there was a problem or something and needed her to call back.

Raph used his knitting abilities to make her things like mittens, hats and even sweaters for her to cuddle into. Combine this with his certified Big Brother Hugs™ that had the ability to melt any worries away he and Y/N could sometimes be found in the projector room watching a movie together while Raph silently taught Y/N how to knit while she sat securely against his chest.

Donnie was probably the person who could relate to her problems with other people the most. He immediately noticed when she was overwhelmed, dragged her to his lab, placed her in a corner that usually his brothers occupied hence why there was a beanbag, blankets and pillows and handed her one of his certified Genius Tech™ headphones while he returned to work on one of his projects. They might not actively interact with each other, but they still built a bond of trust. Both kind of became each other person they could just retreat to when people and socializing was too much, but they also didn’t want to be necessarily alone.

But Leo was struggling to really connect with Y/N. Don’t get him wrong the two were friends and hung out a lot but there wasn’t something the two did together. Not like his brothers and April with Y/N.

That was until he took a day to wander through the Hidden City alone to see what else there was to discover and he managed to find hidden inside a scary looking forest a beautiful patch of grass covered in all sorts of colorful and no doubt magical flowers. His mind immediately jumped to Y/N and how she no doubt would love this place.

He closed the book carefully, not wanting to destroy the carefully pressed gifts to place said book back on his shelf.

He didn’t know why he was so anxious to ask Y/N if she wanted to go into Hidden City with him. He was the face man! He once managed to fool a human chef even while poisoned and probably talking gibberish without a disguise! That’s how good he is!

Besides it’s flowers! Flowers she probably has never seen! He was sure she would love it!

Using this bout of confidence, that was definitely there since forever and actually he didn’t need to take advantage of a ‘bout of confidence’, that’s stupid, he grabbed his phone and clicked on her contact to text her.

“Chello~ Got some time? Wanna show you something cool!”

Should he add emojis? Like some flowers? Would that spoil the surprise? Would that be cheesy? A simple smirking emoji would be the correct choice. Wait, no, that kinda looks weird together with the message. Screw it. Send it as is.

It took a bit but Y/N responded, calming down his anxiety immediately.

The text immediately started with a happy emoji

“Yeah, I have time! Just finished studying! Need me to come down?”

Oh, right! She was studying for an upcoming exam since she was in university for botany.

“Nice!” This time a thumbs up seemed appropriate.

“Mind if I just teleport to you since it’s in the Hidden City and I want to teleport us there anyways. No need to walk all the way if I can just use my awesome skillz”

The answer this time was immediate from Y/N.

“Sure. You can portal here!”

That’s all he needed to grab one of his sword and slice through the air. A familiar blue circle appearing in front of him. Head empty, he walked in to come out inside Y/N’s bedroom. She was still sitting at her desk, hunched over phone. A pen in her mouth.

“On the phone while studying? Is that a good idea?” Leo joked, mostly to try to get her attention so she wouldn’t be spooked to suddenly see him.

She still tensed up with wide eyes, the pen falling on the floor as she turned around to spot the turtle in her room. The shock immediately was replaced with a fond smile.

“H-hi! Already here!”

Leo nodded, walking over to lean on her chair. Looking over her shoulder to scrutinize whatever she was working on. Okay there were a lot of words on a paper and hastily drawn graphs or something. Yeah, no, he checked out.

He still hummed approvingly as if he was looking over work and found it was all correct.

Y/N raised one of her eyebrows at this and huffed out an amused breath “Well, what did you want to show me?”

Leo pushed himself away from the chair and look Y/N over. Clothes? Check. Shoes? Nope. He frowned.

“We can’t go if you don’t wear shoes, Petal. Socks won’t do.”

Her face immediately burned up. He sometimes used that nickname solely to tease het with it since somehow this name seemed to break Y/N.exe every time. This has earned him a handful of times some pulls by his bandana tail by her. Almost if she wanted to pull on his ear or hair if he had any.

She grumbled embarrassed and wandered out the room only to reappear a minute later with her shoes on.

Leo clapped his hands together “Perfect! Let’s go!”

Once again he sliced through the air and opened another pulled. This time he didn’t mindlessly walk through the portal. No, this time he made sure to grab Y/N’s hand before mindlessly walking through the blue swirl. At this point he was really confident that his portals delivered him to the place he wants.

Bigger stretches of space could be a bit tricky if he couldn’t directly see the goal but he has been working on it.

Luckily, he didn’t embarrass himself this time by teleporting him and her to Spain or something.

With a soft thud he and Y/N arrived at the flower field. His portal hasn’t even fully disappeared into thin air he already heard Y/N excitedly gasp.

“Oh my god! Look at these flowers! They are so pretty! Oh my god!”

She was happily flapping her hands, turning around to Leo with huge glistening eyes and a faint blush across her cheeks. Her smile reached her eyes, crinkling the corners of her eyes. Leo hoped he wouldn’t forget that expression of her since it was so full of pure joy it elevated his own heart and made a happy grin appear on his face as well.

He nervously scratched the back of his neck “Yeah, I was kind of just walking around and found this. Thought you might enjoy this place.”

Y/N was clearly fighting to let proper words fumble through her joy but also shyness until she finally nodded “Enjoy? I love!”

She said it surprisingly softly with a slight wobble to her voice which somehow conveyed her happiness even more if she would have yelled it out.

Shakily she grabbed Leo’s hand that hung uselessly next to him and pulled him to the middle of the patch only to sit down on the soft ground. Her eyes scanned the whole place until they finally landed on the blue flowers close to her legs. Almost as if she was scared the flowers would break under her touch she soft traced the stem and then the petals.

To be fair they were in the Hidden City Leo wouldn’t be surprised if suddenly one of the flowers tried to eat them. Maybe this was a bad idea after all? But when he looked her happy expression, the small little moments where she couldn’t help herself but flap her hands due to happiness, he couldn’t help but decide that this was a risk worth taking. Besides he was here. He could deal with anything and protect her.

So here he was. Sitting next to Y/N while she inspected the flowers all around them. A, probably magical, sun shining down on them, bathing the two in warmth. It was calm, hell, it was peaceful.

“Hey, Y/N.” Leo tried to get her attention.

Y/N looked over at him and once again his heart seemed to twist at the beautiful expression of hers.

“You know I just realized. I don’t know how you make one of those flower crown things. Never had the chance to really try it out.” It was a random thought that jumped out to him but he couldn’t help to bring it up.

Weirdly enough Y/N looked almost sad for a moment before some determination jumped through “I’ll show you. It’s easier than you might realize.”

With that Leo turned properly towards Y/N. So that his whole body was now facing her and not just his face. She mirrored his behavior only to get up for a second and begin to gather an array of blue and white flowers. The petals of these flowers were big but thin. When Y/N dropped them in his lap he was sure they would have to be pretty heavy but these flowers were actually quite light.

With that Y/N softly begun showing and explaining to Leo how to make a flower crown. How to braid them all together. She often tripped over her own words, a wobble sometimes appearing when she misspoke or felt like she just made a mistake.

Leo made a point of complimenting her work or making some joke to alleviate her worries. It seemed to work as she continued working.

In the end the two had each a blue and white flower crown. Y/N’s looked naturally amazing while Leo was amazed that his seemed to somehow hold together. Hey as long as it’s not immediately falling apart! Seems like a win to him!

Y/N stared at her flower crown. Slowly turning it around. Leo was about to ask what was on her mind but she begun speaking on her own.

“Thank you. Th-Thank you for bringing me to this place.” He could see her tensing for a moment when she fumbled the word. “It really cheered me up. I think I needed it after being stuck at home studying for days. Thank you, L-Leo.”

A soft smile stretched across Leo’s face “Of course. When I saw this place, I immediately had to think of you. Figured you’d love it here.”

This made Y/N finally look up again with a new softness in her eyes he saw very rarely. His breath hitched as he finally saw this look from close up. Whatever this emotion was she was conveying with her eyes and poster, it filled him with a warm feeling.

With an uncertain smile and shaky hands she suddenly moved her flower crown and softly placed it on Leo’s head. She was so carefully moving as if he was a scared wild animal that would sprint off into the woods any second it made his heart squeeze.

He was a ninja that saved the world a couple times by now. Hell, he could probably snap her bones if he really wanted to due to the strength from his mutation. His strength didn’t come close to that of Raph but still, he was positive he still could. And yet, Y/N treated him as if he was fractured glass and she didn’t want to break him.

Heat rose to his neck and face. He couldn’t help but think if he was a human and had ears, would his ears also burn up? Just like Y/N’s right now. It was cute.

And as her hands slowly fell down. She had to stretched up to place the flower crown on his head since he was taller than her even while sitting. Y/N slowly moved back down to sit back down on the ground properly only to stop midway through. Her face right in front of his, determination burning in her eyes, contrasting her burning cheeks.

And with a slight grin she moved forward, placing a soft kiss on his snout only to fall back down on the soft ground.

It happened so fast Leo needed a moment to wrap his head around this action.

“Bwuh”

Eloquent Leonardo Hamato. Nicely said. Less is more as they say.

Y/N was at this point kneading her own hands, a nervous habit, but she was still smiling!

“Seriously. Thank you. Thi-This means a ton to me.”

Leo’s voice failed him. He opened his mouth but nothing came out, only a high pitched whine that he immediately strangled by snapping his mouth shut so fast and strong his teeth clicked together.

Almost as if he was a robot he moved his own shoddy flower crown towards Y/N and robotically placed it on her head. She had to move it a bit around, so it wasn’t tilted on her head.

“Yeah. No problem.” Leo finally managed to whisper. His voice sounded strangled. Almost as if he was talking right after Raph punched him accidentally really hard in his stomach during training.

Y/N’s embarrassed mind must have finally won over since she twirled around and laid down on the ground to look up “Le-Let’s just, uh, Let’s just enjoy the sun?”

He nodded and laid down next to her “Yeah. Let’s chill.”

Y/N knew immediately that something was wrong when they woke up and felt eerily peaceful.

Normally their mornings were stressed and hectic, them rushing around their own flat to freshen up and get dressed all while battling their sleepiness that was still deep in their bones.

Today though they woke up and it was nice and quiet. A stray sunbeam managed to fall through their window, bathing their face in a soft and warm light. This must be what has woken them up, but Y/N didn’t mind since for the first time in a long time they felt somewhat rested. Sure, their usual fatigue was still there but it wasn’t the sleepy haze that pulled at them, beckoning to return to the warmth of their bed, back into a dreamless void.

Yeah, today was surprisingly peaceful.

And this unnerved them.

There was no possible way that this would be the start for their day. Something must have been off, something forgotten.

But what?

Y/N absentmindedly pulled on their blanket, pulling it further against their face as they pondered what on earth could they be forgetting?

Almost as if the universe wanted to help out, their phone rang and when Y/N read the name on the screen they let out a panicked shriek. With this sudden spike of panic, that truly seemed to wake them up, they grabbed the phone and pressed on accept.

Lurching forward, pushing their blanket away from them only to kick it to the end of their bed, they yelled out “Oh my god! May! I’m so sorry! I just woke up!”

May’s laugh filled their ear “I fucking knew it! Honestly, I expected you to be late, but it’s been an hour now!”

Y/N pressed their hand against their forehead, sighing a deep painful sigh “I’m so sorry. I’ll be over there as soon as possible, and I owe you definitely a coffee and a snack. Give me like twenty minutes!”

“I mean I was about to say I waited an hour for you I can squeeze in a few minutes more, but free food does sound fantastic. Don’t stress yourself but get your butt moving!”

Yelling out a hasty goodbye and a few confessions of appreciation and love towards her good nature and patience, Y/N basically threw the phone back on the bed to sprint into the bathroom.

They knew they shouldn’t have hung out with both of their sisters till like 3 a.m. but they couldn’t help themself! Nowadays it’s difficult to get the whole family together since it seemed like they all managed to choose universities or colleges that have been too far away from each other which meant that it wasn’t a thing of casually meeting up anymore.

Both sisters had managed to visit Y/N during their free time, spending a few days at their place. Sadly, both drove back home at around 3 a.m. since they too had plans tomorrow.

Hence why Y/N is here an hour late even though they promised May that both would meet up to study for their graduation exams. It was the last two semesters and since time liked to fly past them, they offered May that the two begin slowly preparing. It was something a few teachers and professors said as advice. Y/N already knew this would mostly just be preparing for the immediate next exams and not the graduation exams, which was fine by them.

After all, Y/N liked to be busy and prepared. May would always roll her eyes at that but still go along with it. It’s also the reason why May called them Bee for a nickname. Y/N is a busy bee indeed.

That didn’t mean though they didn’t oversleep… every now and again. Or often.

After getting dressed and ready, Y/N threw their hands into the bowl that held their keys and fished them out with an annoyed sigh. Taking one more look in the mirror they decided that they looked presentable enough which meant they could finally leave their apartment.

It only took a few minutes until they arrived at their local library since they lived pretty close to campus. It was an incredibly lucky find and they were still praising whatever higher being was out there that allowed them to find a cheap flat close to their university. It even had a living room! It wasn’t just bedroom, kitchen and bathroom but also it had a god damn living room! Having a living room while only working part time jobs due to university was something special, alright?

It wasn’t difficult to spot May. It never was. She loved wearing brightly colored dresses that seemed to shine even brighter against her black skin. May also had a penchant to put little decorative clips into her black curls. And if that wasn’t enough, she also had the most warm and brightest smile Y/N has ever seen on a human. Being in the same room as May always seemed to cheer them up no matter what.

Today May wore a nice yellow dress with orange flowers printed all over it. She had her hair simply pushed back by a yellow hairband that was adorned by orange plastic flowers.

Y/N softly placed the coffee cup they bought on the way to the library and pushed it into May’s view, since she was still busy reading some sort of textbook.

Her eyes first landed on the coffee cup quizzically before her gaze followed Y/N’s hand and arm to finally look into their eyes.

“Y/N! You are finally here! And with an apology as well!” she happily exclaimed as she grabbed the cup without question and took a hasty sip from it only to immediately choke on the hot drink.

Setting down their bag on the table to sit down next to their best friend Y/N began cackling at May’s behavior “You damn well know it’s from the café outside, I really thought I didn’t have to warn you that it’s hot!” They were also holding onto their own hot drink, though clearly not taking a sip just yet.

It took a few more coughs until May could finally respond “Well, you should have. I was just so happy about a free macchiato that I lived briefly in a world where drinks were at the perfect temperature and not too cold or, if you can believe it, too hot.”

“Well, I hope your tongue isn’t too destroyed from a clearly hot beverage that you had your hands wrapped around because I also brought us this” A grin spread on Y/N’s face as they moved their hand that was hiding beneath the table to show that they were holding on to a little package.

May gasped excitedly “Cookies! I love it when you come too late, Y/N.”

“I don’t” Y/N deadpanned only to break out into laughter alongside May.

Fishing out their laptop Y/N placed it in front of them “Welp, time for the not so fun part. Might as well get this over with and then maybe we can do something actually fun.”

“Alright. Let’s get the show on the road then.”

It didn’t take long for more books to cover their table as they begun studying. It wasn’t going horrible, but both were groaning every now and again when they reached a new block in the road.

Luckily since the two had the same major they could help each other out or work together to find a possible solution.

While they took quick breaks in between they decided at one point to grab a salad or a pastry from the café outside. Since they have been cooped up inside the library for hours now, they decided to sit outside of the café with their newly acquired food.

May happily dug into her salad “So, why exactly did you oversleep this time?”

“Oh! My sisters visited me, and we hung out and talked for hours on end. It was nice seeing them both after weeks of just talking via phone.”

As Y/N continued to tell May all about what has happened in the lives of their sisters, May just kept smiling happily. Every now and again throwing some remarks in to keep the conversation going but she mostly kept on listening to Y/N’s happy rambling.

At some point Y/N became aware of this and faltered for a moment, feeling it rude to gush about their sisters to their friend while the two were hanging out but May immediately asked them to give her the details as to why the youngest decided to leave her part time job for another.

May was great like that. She knew how much the two meant to Y/N and she was always happy to hear about them. Their sisters met her a few times as well over the years, so it wasn’t at least Y/N rambling about strangers to May. Even then she probably wouldn’t have minded.

It made Y/N remember that May was also patient whenever they ranted about their current hyperfixation.

Y/N stopped talking as they took another sip of their drink, eyeing May as their thoughts kept swirling about “I’m glad I know you, May.”

Instead of just laughing it off or exclaiming that this was weird to say May’s smile just widened “Aww! I’m glad as well!”

She went quiet for a second. Both just happily basking in the little moment before she spoke up again, changing the topic “Well, if your reason for being too late are your sisters, I would have even forgiven you even without the coffee. Happy I still got it though.”

She stuck her tongue out towards Y/N for a second before taking a sip from her new coffee as if to almost make a point, even though this time she paid for her drink herself.

“Since I kept talking about my family, how about you tell me how your mom and brother are doing! Your mom doing better?”

May nodded energetically “Yes! The flu has finally decided to leave her alone! Good for Derek honestly because he was stuck with having to take care of her. Try telling my mom to go lay down and rest when she is all like ‘It’s just the dishes’! I’m surrounded by workaholics, for real!” She made sure to also narrow her eyes at Y/N accusingly.

Y/N’s eye lit up “That reminds me! We should definitely head back and continue working. But sorry, continue on.”

“You can’t be real, Bee! Just a little bit more! You can’t tell me that your brain isn’t still smoking as well! In fact, how about we head to your place and put on a few movies. I’ll even buy some snacks for us. You know as a way to strengthen us so we can deal with all the studying that will be upon us in the weeks coming.” May had the edges of the table in a death grip as she slightly leaned forward. Surprising even Y/N who is pretty much used to May’s mannerisms.

With a pained expression Y/N mulled this over. Studying is important but movie day with May and snacks sounds amazing indeed. Free snacks at that.

And to Y/N’s chagrin there was May, widening her eyes and pouting. The puppy dog eyes. Y/N’s kryptonite.

“No, we can’t… There are exams coming up…”

May leaned even closer, somehow her brown eyes seemed bigger and shinier.

“I won’t fall for it, May. I’m so much stronger since last time you pulled this.”

“Please?” May asked. Her voice wavered even a bit. Putting every ounce of emotion into this little word.

Staring another few seconds into May’s shining eyes they sighed, visibly slumping down in their chair “Alright. You win. Movie day it is.”

May pumped her fists into the air “Yes! Yes! No one can withstand the May puppy dog eyes!”

“I feel like at this point I should unionize with your mom and Derek so we all can work towards breaking this win streak of yours.”

“You may try but you all will fail either way. I would only need to break one of you for all you to fall like a house of cards.” She stood up to grab Y/N’s hand so she could start tugging them along. It reminded Y/N of a child that wanted to show their parent something amazing.

Y/N stood up and begun following May back to their apartment “You are evil Miss May Wellis.”

“And yet you love me!”

“Just barely.”

“Hey!”

After going to the local corner store to grab some snacks, the two finally reached Y/N’s apartment. May was bouncing on her feet the whole way. Rambling off all the movies she really wanted to watch.

Once Y/N opened the front door of their apartment May brushed past them to make her way into the little but comfy living room. May loved hanging out at their place and honestly half of the decoration in the apartment was from her. She loved to make the small place as comfortable as possible.

Honestly if there was enough space Y/N would have offered for them to move in together already since May was lowkey already living here anyway, but alas multiple things got in the way.

The living room had a huge fluffy rug in front of the sofa which in return was covered in a ton of pillows and blankets. Courtesy of May, of course.

Y/N grabbed some drinks out of their fridge and went back into the living room to sit down on the rug next to May who was already making a bit of a nest using all the blankets and pillows. The snacks were on the ground ready to be taking and snacked upon.

“So, what do you wanna watch?” Y/N asked as they settled on the ground against the sofa.

May scooted over towards them to lay a blanket across the two “How about we rewatch The Mitchells vs the machines?”

This made Y/N chuckle “You really love that movie.”

“I do!” May exclaimed, throwing her arms into the air to accentuate her point.

With the remote in Y/N’s hand they just nodded along as May counted off all her favorite things about the movie “Alright, alright! I choose the next movie though!”

Opening up Netflix, Y/N looked through for the movie and started it.

Almost as if to show off how often May did watch the movie she began voicing along a few lines whenever she could which made Y/N just laugh along happily.

The movie ended way too soon for May’s liking, but this gave Y/N the chance to choose a movie. Choosing one of their own favorites. The second movie soon moved unto a third movie which led to a fourth, fifth and even sixth one.

Y/N and May chatted while they watched. Mostly about their essays and exams but also more about their families. Both had perpetual smiles on their faces as they casually cuddled together how they usually did during movie nights.

May’s head at some pointed landed on Y/N’s lab and when they absentmindedly begun playing with her hair, she let out a big yawn.

Minutes later May was fast asleep in their lab and it didn’t take long for Y/N to follow along as well. Falling into a dreamless sleep, holding on to their best friend. Their last thought being of how serene and happy the day was.

When Y/N woke up again, they once again felt unnerved.

Their eyelids felt like led and it took a lot of patience and concentration just trying to open them. Were they that deep in their sleep?

Yet as their eyes opened it seemed their gut feeling wasn’t for nothing.

They expected a lot when they woke up. Either they would have woken up and saw that they somehow managed to sleep sitting up, which would probably end up with a painful neck. Maybe they would have fallen down on the ground next to May to sleep. Maybe the two would have woken up just to properly get into their own beds.

But when they opened their eyes, they were met with a concrete ceiling.

Their flat did not have a concrete ceiling!

As panic rose in them, they shot up, only to be overwhelmed as their head began to pound. It felt like their skull was being split in two and they couldn’t help to curse as they clenched their eyes shut to get through this sudden pain that wrought havoc through their head. It seemed like every pound coincided with their panic ridden heartbeat.

Trying to get through their pain Y/N took deep and slow breaths. Everything was wrong but right now they needed to clam down and get through this. They needed to find out what exactly had happened.

There was a sudden gasp next to them. Fear struck like lightning through them. Their head immediately snapping to the sound.

A panicked and hoarse shriek left Y/N’s mouth as they saw something they could only describe as a monster.

It was a person? A green person. A hard surface, maybe a plastron, across his chest and something like a shell on his back. A blue bandana across his wide eyes. Two red crescents marked his face across his eyes. He was clearly in the middle of just casually walking into the room as he spotted Y/N awake. It looked like he literally froze up in the middle of his movement.

Y/N realized they were on a stretcher and moved back against the wall. It felt wrong. Everything felt wrong. Everything is wrong!

The weird person monster thing suddenly seemed to realize that he must have frozen up because he shook his head to get out of his stupor, his shocked expression now changed out for a big smile.

He immediately strode closer to Y/N who tried their best to meld into the stone wall behind them.

“You are awake! Oh my- You are awake! How are you feeling?”

Y/N tried to say something, but panic seized up their vocal cords.

Blue, they decided to call him after his bandana color, seemed to notice their panic because his happy expression changed back into that of worry.

He softly put his hand on their shoulder in an almost familiar fashion, definitely noticing them trying to flinch away “Hey, hey. It’s alright. You are fine! You are safe!”

Are they though?

As they finally spoke, they noticed how hoarse their voice truly sounded “What… What is going on? Who- What? Who are you? What do you want from me?”

They didn’t think it’s possible, but Blue’s green skin seemed to pale. His mouth falling open as he took a step back.

“Y/N? You don’t remember… me?”

Y/N frantically shook their head. Should they? How? When? He did know their name though but there could be plenty of ways to find that out.

He just stared at them, probably trying to read their expression. His hands flew towards the top of his chest, his finger tapping against himself “I’m… Come on. This is not funny Y/N.”

But when Y/N didn’t relax he must have realized that they were very much honest with him.

­­­­Brother.

Brother?

Brother?!

Y/N just kept staring at Leonardo, their mind racing as they tried to process the words he spoke so earnestly. There was no coherent thought that stuck out besides the utter feeling of disbelief mixed with fear.

“He-Hey, calm down, alright? We’re going to figure this out. Take a deep breath, Y/N.” Leonardo moved his hands in an up and down motion as he took a tentative step closer again.

It was only then that Y/N realized that they were at this point hyperventilating. They were gasping in air as if they were being suffocated just moments earlier. Honestly this wasn’t far off since this whole situation seemed to suffocate them. It all was just too much. A sick joke. A horrible nightmare.

Their hands began scratching along the rough material of the stretcher they were sitting on all the while they just kept staring at Leonardo. They were just trying to ground themself somehow as their lungs desperately fought for air and their head began to pound even harder. The pounding got so strong Y/N was positive they could hear their racing heart in their ears. God, their body began to feel all fuzzy.

“Come on, do it like I do. You’ll be fine I promise.” Leonardo spoke as he visibly took a deep breath in, held it for a few seconds and let the breath out again. He used his hands to further instruct Y/N on the rhythm. His voice sounded steadfast, almost as if he has been through this countless times, but his eyes were wide in worry and Y/N noticed him shifting his weight from one foot to the other constantly.

A thought struck them. He seemed genuinely worried for them. Was it because of his delusion that they were his sibling?

Leonardo kept up the breathing exercise in front of them up for a few more moments before Y/N forced their panic ridden body to at least try as he said. This definitely was a moment were panic was warranted but it wouldn’t help them to get out of this situation.

Whatever this situation was.

As Y/N held their first breath inside their lungs, forcing themself to keep their mouth shut, Leonardo moved his head lightly to the side. His eyes never leaving the shaking form of Y/N as he kept his hand movements up.

“Guys! You might wanna slowly get in here. Y/N finally woke up, but they are panicking!”

Oh, fuck, there were more? Were they like him? What the hell did a whole group want from them? A simple university student who should be at home and be laughing with their best friend about how amazingly well their study day went.

The world became blurry as tears finally fell down their eyes. Where was May? Was she here as well? Would they see May again? Was she alright? What about their sisters? Did they already know that they were missing? Have they been gone long enough to be missed?

Y/N stopped attempting to do this stupid breathing exercise, instead they just let the feeling of helplessness wash over them. Closing their eyes to shut the world out, they let out their first big sob.

They wrapped their own arms around themself. Grabbing their biceps in a death grip only to notice how there seemed to be something firm on their chest. Confused to this new sensation they dared to open their eyes to the blurry world, taking a look down in fear.

What they were greeted by was green. Their skin was green and scaley. The green skin laid atop of a light-yellow surface that covered their chest area and stomach.

Y/N screamed.

They let go off their own arms, seeing how three digits unfurled.

Why the fuck was this body listening to them? This wasn’t their body! This wasn’t them! This was a nightmare!

They felt sick. Their stomach twisting as their moved the green three-digit hand in front of their vision. Willing this hand to open and close by their own command.

They scrambled against the corner of the wall that the stretcher was standing against. As if trying to flee whatever this was in front of them. Screaming once again when the green body followed their commands.

As they stared down at these hands, they noticed how this chest was rising and lowering at incredible speed. This couldn’t be their body! What happened?

Suddenly there was a green hand that softly pulled on Y/N’s hand. Another green hand with three fingers.

Y/N’s eyes followed the hands as they softly wrapped themselves around their shaky ones. Their eyes wandered along the hands over green arms to be met by the color orange. An orange bandana to be specific.

There was another one like Leonardo? He was saying something. His eyes filled with worry just as much as Leonardo’s. The words never reached Y/N.

No, the static in their mind combined with the pounding of their head and heart was too overwhelming for them to even try to process what Orange was trying to say to them.

Leonardo stood a bit behind him. His fist laying against his chin as he nervously bit down on his lip. Next to him stood two more green people. One tall wearing red and one around Leonardo’s height wearing purple.

Four. There were four.

Red was seemingly talking to Leonardo and Purple while Purple was hurriedly tapping around on a gadget on his wrist as Orange tried once more to gain Y/N’s attention by pulling on their hands towards him. The two pair of hands stood in stark contrast with Orange’s plastron.

Green hands. Their own green hands. Green like these four. They also had the same weird plastron on their chest.

This all was too much. Way too much.

Something finally snapped and Y/N’s eyes rolled back as their body grew limp and darkness finally swallowed them again. And Y/N couldn’t help but feel glad as the darkness crept into their vision, taking them away from this whole situation.

Their dreams were a jumbled mess of memories and nightmares of what could be. The faces of their friends and family passed their minds eye only to evolve into full on happy memories.

One such memory was of the time Y/N visited May for her younger brother’s birthday since they promised to help with setting up his party with his friends. Besides Derek has become a good friend of theirs as well. The memory skipped parts going from Y/N making their way over to their friend’s house only to suddenly sit at the dinner table with May, her mother and Derek while Derek took a look at the game, they bought him.

Ms. Wellis, or rather Olivia as she always corrected Y/N, was placing a plate with dinner in front of them. Even if Y/N didn’t like to be a bother to her, Olivia knew that Y/N absolutely had a weakness for her home cooking. May would always try to ease Y/N’s worries by telling her that Olivia was always incredibly happy when people outside the family loved her food since cooking has become somewhat of a big hobby and passion project of hers.

“Aw man! I’ve been looking forward to this game! Thanks, Y/N!” Derek smiled as he studied the cover in more detail.

Y/N chuckled at that “Yeah I know it’s not like you haven’t been constantly talking about this.”

“Yeah, guess I won’t be able to see my son for a few weeks huh.” Olivia sighed but eyed her son with a loving smile. Her eyes always held such warmth to them whenever she watched her kids.

May definitely got her love of colors from her mother. Both tended to wear bright clothes and accessories. It was always fun when both noticed suddenly that their outfits matched without the intention to.

Derek has always been more muted when it comes to clothes, but he made that up with his funny personality and the ability to somehow always make the right jokes at the right time to cheer people up. Y/N is still convinced that he got his sense of humor from his mom. Sometimes Olivia just hits them with a one liner that absolutely knocks the air out of Y/N lungs since it’s usually so unexpected.

“But I gotta ask, Y/N, are you doing alright? You seem a bit under the weather.” Olivia pulled Y/N back out of their thoughts.

Confused they nodded “Uh, yeah! I’m doing good! Why do you ask?”

Olivia’s gaze traveled around Y/N’s form, clearly taking them completely in as they just awkwardly sat there, eating Olivia’s amazing noodle casserole.

“You seem a bit pale? Are you coming down with something?”

Somehow this made May narrow her eyes, a silent accusation hidden in them “Have you been awake all night again, Bee?”

“Oh, yeah, I needed to finally start on the essay that is due in two days and kind of got lost in that I suppose.”

Y/N was sure May would admonish them and get a stern talking to in a jokey manner, but May just shook her head with a smile “Man, you never change. So studious.”

They raised their eyebrow at that “Yeah, if I really were so studious then I would have started the essay days or even a week ago so I wouldn’t be that short on time.”

When May didn’t reply to that, their mouth just pulled into a line as her gaze traveled to the ceiling, Y/N had a sudden realization “Aha, I see how it is. I won’t be saying more with current company but how about we meet up tomorrow?”

Olivia and Derek eyed the two friends with curiosity. Clearly wondering what the meaning behind this was.

Truth was Y/N did not want to call May out on clearly not even having started on the essay while her mom was in the room. They might love to tease May, but they were also no snitch.

May nodded robotically, letting out a nervous chuckle “Oh, yeah that would be nice! Hanging out with you that is. Just hanging out. Nothing more.”

Yeah, May wasn’t the best at lying, yet her family didn’t even try to understand what exactly was happening right now. Wouldn’t be the first time and usually Y/N would step in to make May shut up or they would change the subject.

Since this was clearly it for now the group suddenly turned back to stare at Y/N.

“Uh, ignoring that weird stunt, I gotta say though Y/N does look a bit sick.”

“Oh, thanks. I bought this outfit just recently, I also think it makes me look sick” Y/N joked as they did the typical surfer-dude hand sign that looked like they were making a phone symbol with their hands and rotated it.

May just sighed exasperatedly as she placed her hand on Y/N’s forehead “You do feel a bit too warm. Your cheeks are also glowing.”

Were they? Now that she said it, it did feel like Y/N was sweating. Their limbs seemed heavier than usual. Were they actually getting sick? Well, that’s just great.

Out of nowhere Y/N suddenly found themself on the tacky old sofa in the living room of the Wellis’ household. Their head placed on a pillow as May sat next to them placing a cold, wet cloth on their forehead.

“I’m sorry, May. Also sorry for Derek. You guys shouldn’t have to deal with me on his birthday.”

“Don’t worry. You are family and family takes care of each other.”

Y/N just closed their eyes in content as May pressed the cold cloth against the forehead again.

When Y/N opened them again May was still there. A smile on her face as she looked down on them. She grabbed Y/N’s hand to pull it towards her, probably to play with their hand how she sometimes did when the two were doing nothing.

But what Y/N saw was May holding a green hand with three digits between her hands. Y/N’s eyes widened as they just stared at May playing with the hand as if nothing was going on. Carefully closing the green hand, their hand, into a fist only to pry the hand open again. Her finger running along their palm.

“M-May?”

May’s eyes landed on Y/N but flew back to their hand “Yeah?”

“M-My hand… That’s…” Y/N choked on their words as their eyes traveled down to see the light-yellow plastron on their chest that led to green legs.

“Your hand is what?” May asked calmly, now turning her attention full on Y/N as they let them go.

Y/N immediately scrambled up, ignoring how pain was suddenly wreaking havoc in their head. No, they were just fearfully staring at their green hands, their scaley legs, the weird firm plastron.

“What is this? May, what is this? Help me, I- I don’t-“

May’s hands landed on the side of Y/N’s face, slowly caressing their cheek as she stared into their eyes “Hey, it’s alright. Calm down. It’s going to be alright.”

Y/N was scared but at least May was here, so they just threw themselves against her. Holding on to her as if she was their lifeline. They buried their head against her shoulder as tears escaped their eyes.

“I’ve got you. You’re home. You are safe.”

“Thanks, May.” Y/N croaked out, pressing their face even further against May.

May chuckled “Uh, you’re a month off.”

Confused Y/N let go of May to look at her but that wasn’t May that looked back at them. That was another woman. She wore a green jacket, had her curly hair in two space buns and wore red glasses on her nose.

Blinking through the rest of their tear’s Y/N took a closer look at this woman, but their eyes noticed the concrete walls and ceiling surrounding her.

Their mind finally caught up with them again. Right, they woke up at a weird place with weird monster people and must have passed out. That with May was just a dream of a memory.

Y/N looked down to see that they were still laying on the same stretcher from before. Their skin still green, their hands still only had three fingers. They were awake again. Maybe in the haze of the nightmare and waking up from it they mistook this woman as May, clinging to her not fully realizing that they were awake.

Yet as their mind settled again, they had to realize that that them waking up at a weird place in a weird body wasn’t a dream after all.

“This wasn’t a dream?” They asked out loud as they looked at their hands. Honestly, they were surprised themself how they stayed calm. Then again, a lot had happened and at this point they were just tired.

The woman looked at them unsure “Well you did seem to have a nightmare and kind of freaked out. I tried to wake you up but you kind of just clung on to me.”

Y/N shook their head “No… I thought this was… What is going on? Where am I? What do you guys want from me?”

This probably was the perfect moment to get some answers, so Y/N tore their eyes off their body and looked at the woman next to her. Said woman had her eyebrows scrunched together, her mouth pulled into a line. She almost seemed hurt or sad.

“Leo did say you seemed to have forgotten, but man…” while she mumbled this out more for herself Y/N did hear it. Before they could comment on that, the woman let out a big sigh.

“Alright. Well. I’m April. April O’Neil. Do you remember who you are?”

Y/N nodded “Uh, yeah. I’m Y/N.”

“Full name?”

Why did she want their full name? Should they even answer? This was probably stupid but since Leonardo knew their name beforehand, they must know their name already. Getting the first name and last name of a person is sadly not as difficult as some might belief, so maybe this was really April trying to figure out if they were okay?

“Y/N L/N”

April winced but quickly recovered “Alright. Well, your name is Y/N Hamato and this is your home. You’ve been knocked out for two weeks after a mission went south.”

“No, but that can’t- I’m Y/N L/N. I was before this in my home with my friend May after watching a ton of movies. I fell asleep and now I’m here and I don’t look like I’m supposed to look like.” How they managed to explain their situation so calmly they had no idea, yet they were thankful that they were calm. This way they could finally try to even attempt to understand this situation.

“What are you supposed to look like?”

“Like a human.”

“Um, well I’ll tell you what I know of you. You are Y/N Hamato and a mutant turtle. Used to be a normal turtle then mutated into a turtle human hybrid. You have four brothers, and you are the second youngest. We both know each other since we were kids.” April ranted off, a happy smile on her face as she said the last part.

Well Y/N definitely doesn’t remember any of that. They were sure they would know it if they were a mutant.

April must have been able to read on their contorted expression that this didn’t sit well with them or were at least confused by this. She placed her hand on their forearm giving it a soft squeeze “Alright, we can get to what exactly is going on a bit later. Let’s first deal with how you are doing, and I promise you everything will be fine. So, how are you doing?”

“I’m exhausted. Head hurts. That’s mostly it.” The way April talked to them, maybe they wanted to hold on to the belief that everything will be alright like she said. Maybe they were just too tired to care anymore.

“I’m gonna get Leo, he probably knows where the painkillers are.” She stood up only to stop and move back around to look at Y/N “It’s alright if I get Leo, right? If other people are too much right now, that’s also okay.”

Seeing how Y/N managed to stay calm for now they gave April a curt nod “It’s alright.”

April seemed happy to hear that judging by her smile. She vanished out of the room which left Y/N alone with their thoughts for the moment.

What the hell was happening. It didn’t make any sense. Y/N did not have any memories of what April spoke of. Did Y/N just straight up jump bodies into this Y/N Hamato and it was just a coincidence that both shared the same first name?

No matter how they tried to wrap their head around it, this all just didn’t make any sense. Not that the pounding headache was helping with trying to think through this. That said something in them told them that they won’t get to the bottom of this mystery without some more information anyhow.

Instead, they decided to finally take a proper look around the room. Last time they were too much in panic to properly take stock of their surroundings. There were three more dark green stretchers placed against concrete walls. A few cabinets were hanging on the walls but at the opposite side of Y/N there was a long counter covered with all kinds of tools. There were gauzes, patches, gloves laying next to them which probably meant that all of these tools were medical in nature. Still the brush that laid next to a pair of scissors seemed out of place.

This must be the infirmary of the lair.

Lair? That was a word for it, not what Y/N thought would be their first go to, but they were in a weird place apparently inhabited by mutants, so lair just seemed like it fit.

“Hey, it’s me coming through!”

Y/N recognized the voice as that of Leonardo’s. A second later he entered the infirmary with a glass of water in his hands.

It didn’t go unnoticed how Leonardo definitely moved slowly over to Y/N “Here is some water, let me just grab some painkillers and hopefully they will help with your headache.”

Almost automatically Y/N moved up and threw their legs of the stretcher, so they were sitting upright as they gratefully took the glass of water in their own hands.

Their hands might have each two fingers less now, but they seemed to work just as well as their normal hands.

Leonardo moved to a cupboard next to their stretcher, moving a few boxes around only to pull out a small bottle, he eyed the bottle for a second “How bad is it? You think one would be enough or two?”

Y/N thought about it for a moment, looking at how their fingers looked through the glass of water “Uh, considering how I’ve had this headache ever since I woke up the first time, I would say two? I passed out and all and I still have the headache.”

He nodded, getting two white pills out of the bottle before handing them to Y/N who in return took a second. Were they really just going to take some medication from a mutant that might have kidnapped them?

But if they wanted to kill them then they would have done this already and ever since they woke up they seemed to genuinely be worried about them. To hell with it, they woke up as a green mutant, might as well just go with the punches for now.

As the water hit their throat, they suddenly realized how thirsty they really were, not being able to hold back as they begun chugging the water down.

“Woah, easy there, Spots. There is more water if you want it, drowning yourself won’t help you.”

“Spots?”

Leonardo’s eyes suddenly widen in realization “Oh, it’s my nickname for you. You know because of the spots all over you.”

He sat down at the end of the stretcher, playing with his hands as he waited for Y/N’s reaction.

Y/N placed the empty glass next to them, to take another proper look at their body. Around their arms and legs were indeed a few white spots that contrasted with the green skin. It was also the first time they dared to look over their shoulder. As they expected but feared, there was indeed a dark shell. While they couldn’t see much, they did see a few more of those white spots even on there.

So, a turtle, huh.

“I didn’t even notice them at first. Too confused I had green skin to begin with.”

Leonardo nodded as if he understood “You are a Spotted Turtle. I myself am a Red Eared Slider. Raph is an Alligator Snapping Turtle, Donnie is a Spiny Softshell Turtle and Mikey is a Box Shell Turtle.”

Y/N hummed, recognizing some of those turtle species but not all of the names.

“Hey, um, April told me you had some weird memories yourself? Of what happened?”

“I mean there isn’t much to tell you. I fell asleep in my living room and next time I woke up, I woke up here.”

This didn’t seem to be what he was looking for since he scrunched his face together as he began thinking “What I mostly mean is, how about you tell me about yourself and then I tell you what I know about you and how we got to this situation?”

Okay, that was a fair way to start this and one way to get down to what was happening. Leonardo seemed to be confused as well about this whole situation.

Before Y/N could give him an answer, Leonardo spoke up again “Actually. If you don’t mind, let me get Donnie in as well. He might be smart enough to figure out what is going on.”

“Sure, go ahead. I’ll be fine. I don’t think I will freak out on you guys again.” They wanted to apologize but bit the comment back since they still thought that them freaking out was very warranted in this situation.

Leonardo scratched the back of his neck, almost as if he had been caught doing something he shouldn’t be doing “I guess that was to be expected and maybe a lot at the same time. Should have first made sure how you were doing before bombarding you. Also sorry about the sedative.”

Y/N’s eyebrows flew up “Sedative?”

“A, uh-“ he stopped for a moment “A person good with medicine and all taught me some things for emergencies and you kept freaking out and-“ he sighed “I’m sorry.”

“Huh, this might explain why I am so calm ever since I woke up again. Might still be affected by it. Would maybe explain why I feel so fatigued. Well, I guess it’s fine. Don’t worry, Leonardo. I understand why you did it.”

A grimace made its way on to Leonardo’s face.

He relaxed again when he was met by Y/N’s quizzical look “You never call me that, only if I annoyed you enough for you to be actually mad at me. Leo is fine.” He definitely seemed uncomfortable by this whole situation.

Then again to Leo he just had to tell his sibling that it was alright to call him by a nickname. If they had to do that with one of their sisters, they would have felt weird about that as well.

Right, their sisters.

“Alright. Well one question before you call Donnie and I give you my life story. To you I didn’t just, I don’t know, appear out of nowhere? Like to you I had a full apparently different life?”

“Yeah? I literally grew up with you, so to me you just woke up, told me you don’t know who I am and apparently used to be human? I would have understood all of this more if you just had lost your memory but to have a different set of memories is, I dunno, weird?”

“Ah. Okay.”

Leo slapped his hands on his knees before he jumped up “I’m getting Donnie. Also let me grab you another glass of water. Let’s just do one thing at a time. I’m sure we will find out what is going on. It’ll all be fine, that’s a Leonardo trademarked promise!”

The way he theatrically grabbed the empty glass and bowed before moving out of the room, Y/N couldn’t help but chuckle quietly. Maybe it was still the rest of the sedatives wearing off, but they didn’t feel like they were in immediate danger at the moment and like he said, doing one thing at a time might be better and easier to process for them.