Chapter Text
A loud exaggerated sigh left Leonardo’s chest as the comic he was holding over his body fell forward covering his face.
“Boooooarrd” he groaned.
It had been about three weeks since the cave incident and Lenardo was healing splendidly. Thanks to the special care every single one of his brothers has been giving him, his father's fussing, and a yokai doctor prescribed pain killer he was now cleared to walk around the Lair. He was banned from all forms of strenuous activity, however, which meant no skateboarding, no training, roughhousing with his brothers, and no topside trips.
To put it plainly, Leonardo was going stir crazy. His brothers did a mostly good job of entertaining him.
Jupiter Jim marathons, board games, video games that weren't dance dance revolution, pillow forts and popcorn, and comic book reading seshs. They were careful around Leo too. To the point, he felt like a priceless vaus that could shatter at the first hard look it received. It bothered Lenardo to be treated so delicately, to have every door opened for him, his seats intercepted with a pillow before his tail could even touch the chair, to have his brothers check on him every hour and monitor him like he might sneak out at any second.
In their defense, Leo had attempted a few topside trips just to get some fresh air. His Odatchi has been confiscated after that stunt. If one good thing came out of this it would be that Leonardo's sneaking ninja skills were going to improve tenfold. He wasn’t above still attempting to sneak out at night for a breath of fresh air. He had been successful a handful of times and he suspected his father knew about his midnight outings but remained quiet about it. At least his father recognized he needed a little reprieve every once in a while and granted his son the small pleasure.
His brothers were also very careful of doing any activities that Lenardo wasn’t allowed to partake in. they kept the skateboarding to a minimum, always finding an excuse to stop as soon as the slider entered a room.
Training was a touchy subject too. Of course, the brothers continued to train, they couldn't afford to let their skills slack or fall behind. And so training sessions were random and sporadic in attempts to throw Lenardo off.
His brothers, apparently more in tune with his emotions than he realized, figured out that watching a training session he couldn't partake in would put a rain cloud over his head for the rest of the day. Despite their best efforts Leonardo could tell when they were about to train because before they would slink off to work on their respective weapons they would all get up individually at separate times and make an excuse to leave.
They were quite obvious where they were going but Lenardo pretended not to notice. To wave them off and to say something like ‘catch ya on the flip side.’ then go back to his comic with feigned indifference.
Then he would hear the soft sounds of training echoing off the tunnel walls. They would bang around in his skull taunting him of all the things he wasn’t allowed to do while he pretended to read the same page over and over again. His brothers would come back one by one an hour or so later with a sheen of sweat that always made Leonardo's green monster grow. He missed training with his brothers, to feel the simple ache of muscles after a good work out and to laugh and joke without a care in the world.
He huffed again in frustration as the pages of the comic settled on his face fluttering slightly in response. He pulled the pages away from his face before they could get sticky with his hot breath. He sat up with a groan careful of his arm that is in a sling. He was tired of reading and sitting here in bed. If he can’t train he might as` well hone a different skill.
Setting his comic aside atop the pile of 30 other issues, he gets out of bed and walks over to his desk. He grabs a medical textbook that is worn through and the spine is taped together shoddily to keep the loose pages from fluttering away.
Next, he reaches for his first aid kit. Might as well check the supplies while he was at it to make sure he had everything.
His hand meets empty air and he finds the kit missing from its normal spot. He looks to the empty spot with confusion and scratches his head with his good arm. He’s sure he left it right there. Perhaps he moved it?
His Jupiter Jim bag was oddly missing too….
Okay….. and so was his more intense medical kit. The one he had yet to use (thank god) but held surgical supplies.
Misplacing one item Leo could Admit was on-brand for him. Two was a coincidence, Three was a pattern. A pattern he didn't create. Maybe Dad took them? Raph would know if that's true or not. He exits his room pulling back the curtain.
“Hey Raph, have you seen my first aid kit?” called Leonardo he entered the main room with a slight wobble in his step but no one was there.
No Mikey, No Donnie, and no Raph or dad. Perhaps they were in the kitchen? He tries there next with no improved luck. The place looked like a ghost town. Maybe they were all training? But he couldn't hear the normal sounds of sparring that come with a normal training session. He decides to try there anyway and makes his way to the training room making sure to keep an eye out for his family on the way there.
Before he can enter the room he can hear Mikey’s voice
“So when do we get to do surgery on a grape?” it asked, earning a familiar groan from Donnie.
“When we get the basics down.”
Leonardo pauses outside the door listening to his brothers talking. It's instinctive at this point to sneak around them so he presses his back to the wall and leans around the corner just enough to see what they are doing.
“well...Is that the right answer then?"
His eyes widen at the sight in front of him.
Set up in a circle are his three brothers with his first aid kit open and items scattered about them. Actually not scattered. Lined up neatly in front of them, each object laid out in even rows of four.
Mikey is looking to Donnie who had his Donnie pad up and is scrolling gently.
"No it's not a scalpel, that's the sharp one Mikey. It's CLEARLY forceps…." He pauses scrolling some more for a moment.
"I think…"
"Guys it's not a forceps. It's a ….uhhhh"
Raph scratched the top of his head grabbing the instrument and examining it.
"....tweezers?" He states sounding less confident now. Donnie lets out a growl and sets his Pad down.
"No it's forceps. They are all tools and if there is one thing I'm good at it's remembering tool names." he peers down at the tools and medical supplies and squints. Like he's not quite sure if he's right but is too Donnie to admit it.
"Actually, it's a five-inch Hager needle holder. But is more commonly referred to as a needle driver"
Leonardo chimes in joining the circle so subtly that his brothers didn't even notice his presence till he spoke. And three brothers look like they are ready to jump out of their shells when he speaks. Leonardo leans back using his one arm to support his weight and he smirks at his brother's entertained with their shell shocked faces.
Ha shell shocked. Good one.
"sOOOOooOOOO what kind of game are we playing?" He teased looking down at his stuff laid out now noticing up close that every item had an index card in front of them.
Some had writing on it, some were left blank. The one that entertained him the most was the one underneath the scalpel.
It had a small knife written in bold red writing, then scratched out in orange and replaced with delicate orange that said 'bandage cutter <3' that was replaced with purple text that said 'scalpel' and Leonardo didn't even know handwriting could hold so much sass.
"And why does it involve taking my stuff?" He raised an eye ridge suddenly realizing that he wasn't the only one practicing his sneaking skills apparently.
"We aren't playing a game…" Mikey admitted shuffling in place for a moment looking bashful. Even Donnie adverts his eyes away from the slider.
"We were trying to learn and memorize all the names of the stuff in your first aid kit" Raph admits, finally gesturing to all the items laid out before them.
"Annnnd why are you trying to do that?" Leonardo asked sending to be more confused. Apparently, his prolonged time in the lair he had lost his touch to read a room because the doctor's delicate touch seems to burst out of Mikey.
"Because you almost DIED Leo!" He shouts and it's a metaphorical punch to his gut.
"You almost died…." He repeated tightening his fist.
"We almost lost you Leo. We didn't know what we were doing and it almost cost you your life" The room goes deadly quiet and it takes Leonardo a moment to regain his footing because he doesn't say anything right away.
“Technically you were legally dead for about one minute and thirty seconds,” Donnie interjects which earns a smack upside his head from the eldest brother. Leonardo doesn't take it personally, he knows sarcastic comments and clinical facts are just familiar tools his brother uses to cope with difficult situations.
"Guys….it's okay. I'm alright and you did a good job taking care of me when we were down in that cave." He smiles to all his brother's making sure to give them each a moment of eye contact. But they all seemed to be refusing to look at him. Instead, all three pairs of eyes were locked onto his cast in the sling. A constant reminder of what could have been their reality.
Raph shakes his head back and forth disagreeing with him.
"No Leo. You barely made it. We didn't know the first thing about first aid. It almost cost you your life."
Leonardo feels himself swallow. Yes, it had been three weeks but they really hadn't talked about it much other than the one day in the hospital. He wasn't too keen on having this kind of conversation but it looks like he didn't have much of a choice.
Guess they are having this conversation now.
"We thought it be prudent to take a more proactive approach to things for...possible future events." The softshell was speaking clinically eyes fliting to Leo quickly and then away. but even Leonardo could pin down the unnerved subtle features of his brother.
"Oh…" he simply states, not sure where to lead the conversation from here.
Truth be told Leonardo didn't remember much from three weeks ago. Sure he remembers what happens before the cave-in, and he vaguely remembers talking to Mikey at one point during. Then after that, he doesn't remember much.
Perhaps it's a blessing he shouldn't question because of how his brothers are acting now. He thinks it must have been much worse than what he imagines. He looks down at the spread of tools and mislabeled note cards. It's a nice system if they had everything labeled correctly. He chuckles a bit at some of the names they have for things.
Unconsciously he starts re-organizing the cards. Rearranging them to their corresponding item. It was like a matching game that he was playing just to take the awkwardness out of the air.
"Well, you are making some good progress. but I think you juuuust need to rearrange some of these …" he selects a card and reads it with a chuckle.
"although some of these are gold and I'm definitely calling the bandages rollie bois" he snickered his shoulder shaking lightly and looking up again. All three brothers' attention was on him now with a foreign brand of seriousness and Leonardo coughs clearing his throat a bit. He doesn't like being the center of such serious attention.
Clowning around and gaining eye rolls or scoffs was something he was used to. This he wasn't and he hated it. He stands up slapping his knee with his good hand..
"Welp." He popped the p trying to lighten the room. It didn't seem to hold a candle compared to the dark gloom hanging over everyone now.
"I'll be off now. Don't want to interrupt your lessons." He gestures over his shoulder inching his way to the exit and flees this awkward exchange.
"Will you teach us?!" Raph practically shouts yielding Leonardo in his escape.
He almost doesn't believe he heard him correctly. He turns around suddenly looking much more like a fish rather than a turtle at that moment.
"You want me….to teach you?" He asked an eye ridge rising skeptically.
He can't remember a time that his brothers were interested in learning from him. His role was the clown, the one that didn't take things seriously, the one that encouraged his brother's without pushing them too hard.
His role was not to be a teacher or a leader. To be asked to teach them...it seemed to be asking too much. To ask him to step out of his roll. And yet...he secretly always wanted this. As much as he tried to deny it he always wanted to be able to impress his brothers in some way with his knowledge. He remembers a few times trying to reach out to his brother's, to teach them some basics in an attempt to impress them. But his efforts were always shut down before he had the chance to. Leo would ask less and less over the years finding it harder and harder to share his interest with them. His flame of want extinguished years ago.
"You sure you want me to teach?" He asked turning more towards them, something flickering inside him again against his will.
Three heads nod at different speeds.
"Yeah Leo, if we are gonna learn this, we might as well learn from the best." Mikey supplies looking up at Leonardo with a wide smile.
Leonardo thinks that the flame that he has so hard to keep down, to keep from flaring up because it hurts too much to let it burn only to be snuffed out quickly, burning brightly warming his shell from the inside out.
"Come on Leonardo, will you teach us? It will be marginally less painful than learning it on the internet'' Donnie speaks and it's paired with a faint smile that Leonardo recognized as genuine interest.
He thinks he might leave the flame flickering. He quite likes the warmth his brother's have provided.
"Alright. I'll teach you the basics." He puts his good arm on his waist and cocks his hip to the side with a newborn confidence.
"But I'm still only going to call these rollie bois" he snickered, gaining a groan from the three.
"I already regret this," Donnie states with an eye roll but there is still a big smile on his face.
-------------
"Boys? Orange? Red, Purple, Blue?" Splinter called walking with a few pizza boxes in his arms and April in tow.
"April is here with the pizz-"
He enters the training room to find the four brothers pulled up upon each other fast asleep. The pile rises and falls with Raph's every breath since he's at the bottom of the pile. He raises a hairy eyebrow confused at the sight before him.
Raphael is covered head to toe in band-aids, some even over his mask, Michelangelo had a stethoscope around his neck and Donatello was wrapped up like a mummy in bandages. Leonardo was oddly untouched by this madness but his cast in his sling now was sporting colorful drawings in different color markers and the words 'rollie bois!!' in large orange letters.
"Hey splints, you find em yet?" April calls coming around the corner now to find the pile of turtles.
She snorts taking out her green phone and snaps a picture quickly.
"Oh that's totally my new background..." she taps away at her phone sending the photo to a group chat that was simply named turtle emoji and then left the room.
Splinter smiles fondly while viewing his boys.
"They are gonna be alright."
END