Chapter Text
Mikey woke up the next morning and checked the calendar he kept next to his bed, seeing that it was September 6th. 'The 6th? Donnie said that Junior's birthday is the eighth, maybe we could plan a party for him. I doubt he ever had one before he came to the past. We'll need Leon's help, he knows junior best.' With that thought, Mikey headed downstairs to the kitchen, deciding to make pancakes for breakfast. When he got there, he was surprised to see Leon in the kitchen already, making eggs and toast for breakfast. "Leon? What're you doing?" Mikey questioned, confused as to why he was making breakfast. "I'm making some eggs and toast, did you want some?" Leon responded, holding a plate out to Mikey as an offering for breakfast. "Sure, thanks Leon. I guess you beat me to breakfast, huh?" Mikey laughed a bit, accepting the plate of eggs and toast and grabbing a fork and some ketchup. "Guess so. Why are you up so early?" Leon questioned, not used to seeing his younger brother awake so early, as he had become more of a night owl during the apocalypse. It'd come in handy a few times, when there were possible attacks that nobody would've known of if Mikey hadn't been awake to see them. "I guess it's a force of habit by now, I typically make breakfast for everyone. I was gonna make pancakes for everyone, but these eggs are really good." Mikey replied, talking around a small mouthful of eggs and toast. "Don't talk with your mouth full, it's gross" Leon quipped. Mikey finished swallowing, an apologetic look on his face. "Sorry, Leon. Didn't mean too." "It's alright, Mikey. Just try to remember to swallow your food before you talk, ok?" Leon said, knowing Mikey hadn't meant to. "Ok" Mikey said, returning his attention back to his food. He didn't want to let it get cold when Leon had made it for him.
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Raph woke up to the sound of his alarm clock beeping in his tympanum, yelling at him to get up. Checking the clock, it read 7:30 in bright red, neon flashing lights. Mentally kicking himself in the face, he went to slam his hand on the snooze button to get the accursed device to stop beeping at him. But of course, Raph being Raph- who had just woken up, he managed to destroy the thing, small shards of plastic exploding every which way. Finally stumbling out of bed, the smell of eggs and toast caught his snout. Making his way to the kitchen, he rubbed his eyes to get rid of the sleep in them. Once he got to the entryway, he spotted Mikey and Leon sitting at the table eating breakfast. "Mornin' guys. What'd ya make for breakfast, Mike?" Raph asked, still partially asleep. "Leon made some eggs and toast! It's delicious, Raph! You need to try some!" Mikey exclaimed, yet again talking around another mouthful of food. Leon popped him gently upside the head, having had enough of Mikey's atrocious table manners. "Chew and swallow, then talk. Not the other way around. Good gracious, Mikey." Leon said exasperated at this point. "It's only..." Leon looks down at his prosthetic wrist. A hologram of a clock popped out, reading 7:15. "Only 7:15. And you've already managed to make a bit of a mess? How do you manage that , Mikey?" Leon stated, clearly done with the day already despite having only been up for 1/2 an hour at least. Mikey just shrugged his shoulders, and went back to eating his breakfast. "Sure, Mike. I'll go grab Leo and Donnie, and we can all eat together, ok?" Raph said before walking out the doorway to got the middle two siblings.
About 5 minutes later, Leo walked in to the kitchen/dining room and plopped down at the peninsula and- very uncharacteristically- burying his face into his arms to avoid the harsh LED lights overhead. Shortly after, Raph came back into the kitchen with a hissing Donnie in his hold, who was ranting about how he needed to go back to his lab to finish his project. "Later, don. You need to eat. Maybe take a nap. Ok? Leon made some eggs and toast, and we can get you your flavorless juice. Ok? Ok." Raph said, trying to bargain with the hissing soft-shell in his arms. Said soft-shell was trying to bite his way out of his trapped state, jaws managing to find purchase on Raph's forearm and locking in place. "Really, don?" Raph said in an unamused tone, raising him up to eye-level with the snapper. "Y'know that don't hurt, right?" Raph deadpanned, already reaching the end of his patience with his little brother. So, he grabbed the nape of Donnie's neck, making the soft shell go limp- which also caused Donnie to release Raph's arm in the process. "LET ME GO, RAPH! I NEED TO FINISH MY PROJECT!" Donnie screeched, clawing at Raph in the hopes he'd be put down. " AFTER you eat! And lay down for 5 minutes at least, I know you didn't sleep!" Raph said, trying not to lose his cool. Leon looked over, looking a little amused at the sight, but also knew Raph was nearing the end of his rope. "Here, I'll take care of Dontron over here. You get something to eat, big guy." Leon said, scooping Donnie up into his arms. Noticing a change of warmth, Donnie tried to fight even harder to get back to his lab. Which only made Leon's grip on him tighter, resulting in Donnie getting curled up against Leon's plastron in a fetal-like position. Noticing how warm Leon was, the fight started to drain out of him, making Donnie sleepy in the process. "No, lemme go... I gotta finish my... project..." Donnie yawned out, slowly starting to fall asleep, but not quite asleep yet. "Yeah, no. You need to sleep. You can have something to eat when you wake up, got it?" Leon snorted, knowing Donnie needed the sleep. Leo slowly lifted his head out of his arms, his eyes having finally adjusted to the lighting. "Is Don finally getting some sleep?" Leo mumbled, not fully awake yet himself. "Yeah, he is now." Raph said, nudging Leo to stay awake. "Did you even sleep last night? You look like a zombie, Leo." Raph stated, a hint of concern in the snapper's voice. "I'm fine, Raph! I got plenty of sleep!" Leo protested, looking exhausted. "Yeah, right. How much sleep did you get?" Leon asked, not believing a word the younger slider said. "Uh, like, five hours? I'm fine, really!" Leo said, trying to protest his case. "Yeah, right. C'mere, I don't believe you." Leon said, fully planning to trap Leo like he did the now-asleep Donnie. Leo walked over to Leon, stopping just short of the older slider. Leon studied his younger counterpart, noticing the barely-visible dark rings underneath his eyes. "Five hours of sleep, you say? Then you won't fall asleep, right?" Leon questioned, scooping Leo up and trapping him exactly like he'd done to Donnie. Leo tried to resist, but he could feel his eyelids getting heavier and heavier with each passing minute, eventually losing his battle against sleep and curling up against Leon's plastron, just like Donnie had. Leon chuckled, knowing full well that Leo wouldn't have been able to resist sleep very long. "Go get some food, Raph. I can watch these two, and I've already had my breakfast. I'll make sure they eat when they wake up." Leon stated, already on his way to the connected family room to go sit on the couch with Donnie and Leo still trapped in his grip, both of them fast asleep. Once they were situated on the couch, Donnie had started wriggling around, having sensed his twin and cuddled up to Leo, unconsciously destroying his 'emotionally unavailable bad boy' image. Leo, in turn, wrapped an arm around Donnie, both falling back into a deep sleep.
Back in the kitchen, Raph and Mikey were watching Leon walk out to the couch. Deciding to get some breakfast; Raph walked over to the stove, taking notice of the still-warm pan with eggs and sausage in it, a plate of slightly cooled toast placed next to it. Raph smiled at the kind gesture, touched that Leon had made breakfast for them. Grabbing a plate, Raph started piling food on, then went to sit down next to Mikey and started to quietly eat his breakfast.
When Raph was halfway done with his food, Leon walked back into the kitchen, the twins huddles together on the couch where Leon had left them underneath a heavy weighted blanket. "Thanks for breakfast, Leon. Ya know, ya didn't have to." Raph said. "Yeah, I know. But I wanted to, and why not cook for my little brothers?" Leon responded, casually starting to clean up breakfast after setting aside some eggs and toast for the twins. Donnie could get his own juice, so that was left in the pitcher in the fridge instead of out on the counter. Donnie wasn't a fan on lukewarm juice anyway. Little brothers? Raph thought. Does he really think of us that way already? Raph looked over at Leon, stunned that he was now a 'younger brother'. Suddenly, Mikey broke the oddly tense silence. "Hey, future boy's birthday is 2 days away. We should plan a birthday party for him!" He exclaimed, not really having heard what Leon had just said. Raph just stared at Mikey, wondering how he could just blow over the fact the Leon had just called them his younger brothers. "Great idea buddy, got any ideas yet?" Leon asked while setting two plates aside for the twins exactly how they liked them, then proceeded to put breakfast away. While Mikey and Leon were chattering away about party plans, Raph had finished up his breakfast and, after putting his dish in the sink for later, went to the living room to check on the twins. Raph wasn't sure what he was expecting, but he found the twins asleep on the couch, Leo laying plastron-down on top of Donnie, unconsciously acting as a living, breathing weighted blanket, and Donnie, for the most part, was as curled up as he could get with about 180 pounds of essentially dead weight on top of him. Raph smiled a little, draped another blanket over the turtle twins, then headed back to the kitchen to help plan Casey's birthday party. Mikey and Leon both agreed that Donnie and Leo could help revise and run errands for the party. Now, all they had to do was set it up.