#scenes from

Mikey butted his forehead against Don’s collarbone and drew in a shuddering breath. “I’m sorry, Donnie, I’m s-sorry, L-Leo…Leo, I’m sorry.”

Leo swallowed and ran his thumb down the side of Mikey’s face. “Sorry for what, little one?”

Mike blinked and raised his head, shifting in Don’s arms until he was facing Leo. He looked miserable. “F-for hurting myself. For ne-never paying attention and never taking anything seriously. And you…you s-still trained me for the grudge match when everyone else abandoned me, even Mas-”

Lightning quick, Leonardo had wrapped his arms around his youngest brother, Donnie’s arms still supporting. “Oh, sweet Mikey. Oh, my gods. No, don’t think about that. Don’t think like that, okay? You’re Mikey, you are our Mikey, and you should never apologize for being yourself. Not to us, not to Sensei, not to anyone.”

Michelangelo was sobbing now, heaving like a child, and Raph was massaging his carapace and pressing his beak to Mikey’s shoulder. Donnie bit his lip and clenched his teeth and lowered his beak to Mikey’s head. Their fault. It was their fault. Michelangelo had been so happy he won the Championship, so fucking proud, and all he ever wanted was their approval, their praise, their love, and yes he boasted and bragged but how else could he explain and express his desperate need to be noticed? His own father didn’t know how to raise him and train him, he couldn’t get access to ADHD medicine and not even the special herbal teas could help completely. Mikey had been left floundering in a family of discipline and darkness, throwing energy and light into shadows that rejected him…no wonder he had clung to the Battle Nexus Championship.

Donatello cried and all his logic and reason drowned in love and fear.

Eventually he heard Leo again. “Mike, no, you were never a burden. You were our heart, you were our joy. Being able to watch you still act young and carefree reminded me that there were more important things than nobility, honor in death, being a great warrior. We were and are still so young and inexperienced. We only have each other. It is like what I told you. I won’t let you fall. We would fall with you. I’m here. I’m protecting you, Mikey. I always was and I always will.”

Don felt Mikey hiccup and tip his head back, so Don kissed his head and pressed his palm to Mike’s forehead. Raph’s fingers were working tense muscles against Mike’s neck and upper back above the carapace.

“An’ I’m with him all the way, Mikey,” Raph said hoarsely. “I’d give my life to protect you.”

“That goes for me as well,” Donnie said between sobs. “We never want to lose you, Mike.”

A massive shudder ran through Mike’s body and for a instant Donnie’s mind screamed seizure! but it passed and then Mikey burst into tears again, moving to Leo again, wrapping his arms around Leo’s waist. “No, no, no, no,” he gasped. “You…you...you don’t get it, that’s not what I want from you. I…I want you to live. I want you all to be with me. I don’t ever wanna lose any of you, ever, don’t you get it? I don’t want you to give your lives for me. It’s better if I go first, I’m the expendable one, I-”

A long, loud growl from Raphael filled the room, as Leonardo’s arms tightened and Donatello gasped in shock.

“Don’t you ever, ever say that again,” Raphael hissed, amber eyes blazing. “Michelangelo, do you hear me? I never want to hear you say you’re expendable.”

Slowly, slowly, Mikey turned and looked at Raph, swallowing. “Are…are you angry?”

“Damn fucking right, I’m angry.”

“I feel it. It hurts.”

“Yeah, it hurts. Didn’t you even hear what Leo said? We all go down. Together.”

“But…Raph, no, I was always the weak link, I was never a great ninja…”

“Mikey, keep talking like that and I will smack you…”

Mike’s body abruptly went rigid, his eyes wide and cloudy, and his breathing became harsh. Donnie quickly locked his arms around his plastron, rested his chin on Mikey’s shoulder, and began to rock him. “Ssshhhhh, Mikey, breathe, breathe, you’re okay, it’s an anxiety attack, you’re okay, Raph’s not gonna hit you…”

Raphael inhaled sharply and Donnie caught the look of sheer horror before Raph scrambled back on his butt, tucking in his arms, staring at Mike.

“Oh god, I’m so sorry, I didn’t…I’m so so sorry, I never…I wouldn’t…”

“You did!” and Mikey’s outburst was sudden and raw. “You hit me and then we grew older and you stopped but you did and I remember and…and I forgive you, Raphie. I forgive you. I forgive you.”

Shaking, Raph crawled back and gripped Mikey’s arm. “But I still hurt you.”

“Yeah. And…and it’s in my head.” Mike looked at him tearfully. “But…you need to know that I forgive you. All of you.”

Raph rested his head on Mike’s shoulder. “I’m such a fucking asshole.”

“But you’re my fucking asshole.”

Leonardo let out a shaky breath, almost a panicky laugh. “Mikey, please tell me you feel even a little bit better about being in the clan.”

Mikey managed a smile. “Yeah. I do. But I don’t know how to talk to M- to Splinter. How do you tell your parent he fucked you up because he didn’t know how to connect with you?”

Donatello huffed, almost a laugh. “You don’t. You rehearse it over and over in your head until you have a whole script and you just never find the courage.”

Mikey turned to him and nuzzled him, purring. “M’sorry, Donnie. Not like he really understood your brain either.”

So I got bit by that daydream idea…. @radio-chatter​ this is for you.  It’ll prolly be forever homeless from it’s larger fic it belongs in…. But yeah. 

From: Untitled RoyaltyAU Fantasy idea that I’ll never write (probably—no i’m not starting another wip…. Reyes get back here!)

Fandom: Mass Effect Andromeda

Pairing: MReyder

Warnings: first draft—there’s no beta here. Partially written scene that won’t get out of my head. 

He could feel the wrongness—the rot that coursed through the soil and rock. It was foul and unnatural, skin crawling as he stretched to trace it. The taint of the magic made his fingers hurt as he mentally mapped the thick ropes of tangled energy he could feel deep beneath his feet that extended like roads in all directions. 

Reyes was right—the poor harvests, the flooding, the bad storms, the fouling of water and earth wasn’t a natural phenomenon. Another mage had done this and they’d been malevolent enough that the pure evilness of their signature made his skin crawl even though it’d been fifty years since the last war and Kadara’s troubles had worsened while everyone else’s had improved. 

It reminded him of the energy flows beneath Hyperion and how he’d been taught to manipulate them.  However, unlike Hyperion’s pure energy that tasted of the storm coming over the mountains and the bite of an early mountain snowfall, Kadara’s was… tainted. Someone had done this on purpose and it offended Scott deeply. 

Energy flows should never feel like this. 

This had to have been done as a last act of revenge. The curse was meant to destroy but the mage had died before completing it so instead the intent had imbued itself in rock and soil, effecting the whole environment. It was chaotic and messy….

He might be able to help. 

Reaching further, he tuned whatever Reyes was saying to him out and cast himself mentally deeper into the land, kneeling to lay his hands on the cold rock that warmed at his touch like an old friend. He could feel the ebb and flow of the natural energy lines and see where they’d twisted and been diverted, tangles of foreign energy creating dams and tainting the flows. 

Diving deep he began untangling the strands that were closest to him. The malevolent energy fought him at first but with a little coaxing he was able to unwind it and separate it out. Slowly tugging and teasing out the knotted energy until it lay coiled neatly and he could trace it back towards the origin point. 

He lost track of time, unsure how long it took but his muscles began to ache and tremble from kneeling. Scott was vaguely aware of someone’s arm around his waist, holding him upright but he mostly ignored his physical body.  If he let go of the old spell now it would rebound and potentially make things worse. 

Scott wouldn’t let that happen. His teacher would reach across the distance and rap him up side the head if he screwed this up—Scott was sure Kaidan would be able to feel the rebound all the way in Hyperion if he messed up. 

He dug in further, visualizing the energy strands between his fingers as he soothed and untangled as he went. The more he worked, the more power he could feel as the strands thickened in his hold. He was getting close to the center of the knot. Just a bit further, a little bit more and he’d have it. 

Scott could do this—had been trained for this.  He could make that frown line on Reyes’ handsome face disappear. 

Continuing to work, he felt the natural energy flows begin to move around him. They felt like they were sheltering him in a cocoon as they parted around him and appeared to dance like a river’s current around a rock. Deeper and deeper he went, pushing and pulling on strands of the energy that were just wrong and foreign compared to the beautiful  earth song that was becoming louder from the ley lines below Kadara as they reverted to their natural place as he freed them. The vibration as the energy flow snapped back into place twanged in the air like plucked harp strings to make a melody that he began humming along to. 

He worked and worked until he came to the heart of the spell. 

Scott could see why the spell had endured for so long after the mage’s death.  

It was a kett—he could tell now by the signature of the spell energy.  Whoever they’d been, they had imbued their death energy into the spell. This was a curse where the price paid had been a life. If Scott had been attempting to do this ten or twenty years ago he’d… well he’d likely have died trying to mess with it. But now?  Now it had been almost fifty years since the war and the mage’s curse hadn’t been reinforced with further sacrifices and the natural order of the earth had worn away at it. 

He idly wondered if anyone in Kett knew about this curse or if it had been just the act of a single person at the end of the war.  The Kett had no love for Kadara given their constant incursions on the southern border each spring and summer as they raided and took what little the people of Kadara managed to scrape together. 

If they knew… no.  They couldn’t know or they would have reinforced it to give themselves more of an advantage. Kadara was the first line of defense for the Capitol—if you got through Kadara you were two mountain passes through Hyperion away from making it to the Nexus. 

Kaidan had mentioned that Kett magic was run in schools unlike the few practitioners in the other kingdoms. That there were traditions and that kett mages kept their secrets guarded even from other kett mages. 

He could do this—was doing this he realized as he examined the center. All he had to do was…. 

There. Right there. 

Using the torrent of energy around him, it came at his call and he hit the one point of weakness at the center of the spell’s base. At first it resisted and seemed to bend slightly so he applied more of the energy that leapt to his call, the tingly feel of the energy rushing across his skin to his command felt like a lover’s caress and the sharp bite of teeth at his neck. 

Sharpening his focus he made the energy do the same and drove a wedge of power right into the weak spot like a sword thrust. At first he expected it to just glance off and have to try again but instead in bit deep, cutting through the resistance of the spell. He pushed and pushed, tearing at the control knot until it shredded into pieces. 

The moment it started to break up, the remaining energy that had powered the spell was cut off and it could no longer take from the ley lines. The spell writhed like a dying snake as it shriveled up and then disappeared like smoke, the scent of sulfur burning the back of his tongue almost enough to choke him as it withdrew. 

Opening his eyes, he was bent over and coughing like he was trying to bring up his boots. The scent of sulfur began to ebb as he took in his surroundings again. They were still part way up a mountain and surrounded by pine trees. There was a constant, worried sounding babble coming from just behind his right ear and the sharp slap of someone pounding on his back made him realize he wasn’t alone. 

“Get it out mi vida! Scott… cariño por favor. Scott?” 

Blearily, Scott turned to look at the familiar voice. 

Reyes was pressed against his side from knee to shoulder with one arm wrapped tightly around Scott’s waist to hold him upright as he swayed in fatigue. 

Oh… that… that had taken a lot out of him.

He sagged in Reyes’ hold, unable to keep his head up and he would have pitched face first into the rocks if it weren’t for the other man’s arms. Reyes began swearing under his breath in native Kadaran, his hand gentle as it cupped Scott’s chin to make their eyes meet.  Whiskey dark eyes watched him worriedly, lower lip between his teeth as he worried at it. “Mi vida?”

Scott waved one limp hand, trying to get across what he’d done. “I… I think I fixed it.”

Confusion made Reyes’ face screw up, eyebrows lifting but eyes still dark with worry. “What?  What did you fix?  You were glowing mi vida!”

“I fixed the… the water?” Scott’s tongue felt thick in his mouth and clumsy. He wasn’t explaining himself right but he felt his muscles quiver rather than respond when he tried to straighten up a bit. 

“What?” Reyes asked, disbelief plain on his face. 

Enunciating, Scott repeated himself. “I fixed the water.”  That was better—you could actually understand him that time. “And maybe the soil too?” He added as an afterthought.

Reyes’ mouth open and closed, at a loss for words.

“You could say thank you?” Scott prodded, deciding that Reyes’ hands felt good despite the ache in his joints and muscles.  He’d maybe overdone it without planning ahead. Next time he wouldn’t attempt something so big without more planning. Kaidan was still going to kill him when he found out what he’d done and how he’d done it. 

Reyes closed his mouth with a sharp clack of teeth and frowned. “What do you mean you fixed it?  I thought…”

“You were right,” Scott explained patiently. “It was the Kett… or a Kett more specifically.”

More opening and closing of the mouth without saying anything so Scott continued to explain. “There was this curse—a death curse.  I got rid of it since it was causing all the natural energy flows to go wonky.”

“Wonky?” Reyes’ voice rose in pitch. “Wait—death curse?!?”

Panic had replaced the frown and Reyes’ hands began checking him over for injury, distracting Scott from his point as it felt good to complain about. Realizing that Reyes was probably more stuck on the type of curse and likely didn’t understand, Scott tried to explain further. “The Kett who cast it died during the casting—hence a death curse.”

Reyes didn’t stop running his hands along Scott’s limbs as if checking to see if they were all still attached and not bleeding. He had nice hands… and fingers… and delicate wrists for a guy given the toned forearms they were attached to that Scott rather admired. The arm holding him was nice and tight… 

“I know nothing about magic but I have heard that you do not mess with death curses or you will end up dead yourself,” he snarled, hands shaking slightly as he began rechecking Scott. 

Okay Scott hadn’t meant to upset Reyes this much—and he was very upset. Reyes was shaking and the slight tremor to the bottom lip had Scott wanting to kiss it away but that wouldn’t reassure Reyes that he wasn’t going to just drop over dead any moment given he still was having trouble convincing his spine to straighten enough to keep meeting his eyes. “Babe,” he started.

“Don’t you babe me!” Reyes interrupted, before beginning to rant. “You.. you could barely hold yourself up and then you started glowing and your eyes!  Your eyes rolled so far back in your head that they were white!  And then the nosebleed and you felt so cold! I tried to get you to respond but you didn’t and—“

Scott cut him off with a kiss. Reyes’ open mouth allowed him to get his tongue in and, after a few seconds of teasing, his almost lover began to respond. At first it was a few tentative strokes and then it became a fight for dominance and he willingly gave in to Reyes’ onslaught. The hands that had been checking for injuries now cradled him close and Scott practically melted into Reyes’ body heat, hand resting against the unshaven jaw. He knew from previously that Reyes could kiss and Scott began to lose himself in the wet heat and dance of tongues as they breathed into each other, barely parting for more than a sharp inhale before diving back in.