Chapter Text
“Leo!” said Mikey’s bright, familiar voice somewhere down the hallway.
From where he was sitting on the couch next to Cameron, Leo jumped slightly.
“What?” he asked, closing the laptop and looking up at his brother in surprise as he entered the room running, his eyes lighting up when they landed on Leo.
His first instinctual reaction at Mikey sprinting towards him while shouting his name had been alarm, which he immediately realised was probably an overreaction since this was… typical behaviour coming from his youngest brother.
So, taking a mental step back, he took in his brother’s demeanour. He seemed happy enough, judging by his body language, like he was waiting for Leo to...
That was when he realised what his brother was holding.
Ah, so that’s what this was about.
Leo rolled his eyes with a sigh as Mikey’s run came to a halt a few feet away from the couch, stopping so abruptly that he almost fell forward with the momentum. His brother was clearly in good spirits, looking at him with a nervous smile and a knife in his hand.
He was about to try to push a chore on Leo.
From the corner of his eye, he saw the three doctors in the room tense up and had to bite his tongue to prevent himself from commenting on the fact that he and his brothers were armed at all times with better weapons than a simple chopping knife.
“I was cutting tomatoes but the knife’s a bit dull and it kept slipping and just… mushing them instead of cutting,” he protested. “Can you fix it?”
Yeah, he was not going to humour him this time. Mikey was perfectly capable of doing this himself.
“There’s wetstone in the kitchen drawer,” Leo said, opening the laptop again to get back to what he was doing.
Predictably, Mikey wasn’t deterred.
“Oh, come on,” he complained with a groan. If he was following his usual strategy, the compliment to butter him up should be coming in right about– “Aren’t you the knife expert? It’ll be so much better if you do it!”
Leo once again turned his attention away from the computer to watch his brother with narrowed, suspicious eyes.
“You just don’t like that chore,” he accused. “Maybe a bit of practice will help you become as good as me at it if that’s the problem.”
“Yeah, I hate that chore,” Mikey confirmed with a nod. While still ignoring the second part of Leo’s comment. “Come on… please? I can do something else for you next time.”
Leo sighed again, trying to go for a tired, showy exhale but unable to hide the fond amusement in his expression.
“Yeah, okay,” he said with a shake of his head. He actually didn’t mind this chore and if he could exchange it for… cleaning the bathroom, for example, he was not going to waste the opportunity. “Knife.”
“Knife!” repeated Mikey, throwing his arm back.
A blur of silver cut through the air with a swish and Leo expertly caught the incoming projectile between two fingers with a small smile.
He really should stop humouring Mikey like this. He was already too spoiled.
With a quiet hum he reached towards his belt for his favourite sharpening tool. –Yeah, Raph. That was a perfectly valid preference to have and something normal to feel strongly about, okay? Stop trying to hide it around the house to tease him. You’re not as funny as you think you are–
That’s when Leo noticed the strange tension in the humans surrounding him. They were fixed in place and completely focused on him in a way that made Leo freeze too.
Cameron was the worst offender, her hands covering her mouth as she stared at him, pupils turned into tiny pinpricks from horror. She reached towards him and Leo couldn’t help the reflexible twitch he gave at that, inching slightly backwards as he twisted the knife in his grip, his hand closing around the handle and blade ready for an attack.
Then, he realised what he was doing and forced his shoulders to relax, lowering his weapon. Huh, his heart was… going kind of fast for some reason. That was… ridiculous. He knew she wasn’t an actual threat.
Thankfully, she didn’t try to touch him again. Instead, she leaned closer, her eyes fixed on the hand holding the knife.
“Michaelangelo!” She shouted once she had found whatever she had been looking for, turning to his brother. “You’re lucky Leonardo is alright. You could have hurt him really badly.”
Now incredibly lost, Leo sent a quick look to his brother to see if he knew what the problem was. Usually, Mikey could figure out whatever the misstep had been… a lot easier than him. Unfortunately, he seemed as confused as Leo himself.
“I was just passing him the knife?” Mikey said hesitantly, clearly weirded out by the bizarre reaction the doctor had to this.
“You threw a knife at his face!” Chase exclaimed.
Oh, of course. He thought that all the scepticism was over after their… accident in Donnie’s lab but, apparently, they still hadn’t managed to wrap their heads around the fact that they were surrounded by seasoned warriors, masters of their craft.
Leo took a deep breath, sending the humans a serene, polite smile. “He threw a knife at my hand. I was ready to catch it,” he explained calmly.
It wasn’t enough to reassure the doctors apparently, judging by their still widened eyes and quick exchanged looks.
Had Leo really laid it on so thick that these humans thought he couldn’t catch a simple kitchen knife aimed for him to take? After asking for the throw!?
“What if you had been distracted? You could have lost a finger,” insisted Foreman. Even the usually passive man seemed concerned about him.
“Not just a finger, with the way he threw it,” was Chase’s quiet muttered comment.
That was… that was just absurd. Again, he had literally asked for the weapon.
But… thinking about it more, it could be a good thing. His father hadn’t reacted the way Leo had hoped for when he told him about the strategy he had decided to use on the doctors but to be underestimated by an opponent was always useful and–
Then he noticed his brother’s expression.
Mikey’s lips had become a thin line, and he visibly started to grow more and more upset, eyes looking suspiciously shiny as he turned to meet Leo’s gaze.
Leo knew that expression. It was the same one he had been trying to run from since they had started to regularly leave the sewers, the one he fought every day to never see directed at him, not from his family. He was… he was worried about him. Mikey was worried about Leo.
His brother knew this wasn’t dangerous. They had been as safe as possible! Hell, Leo’s never had a problem when the Foot aimed every ninja weapon in their arsenal at him with the intent to kill.
But now Mikey was concerned. He thought Leo couldn’t deal with a single kitchen knife.
And all because of the doctors.
Intense, sharp something erupted suddenly in Leo’s chest and he found himself momentarily stunned, having been caught completely off guard by whatever this feeling was. It wasn’t the utter embarrassment and humiliation he had felt after House had broken through his facade. That… that unsettling exposure had been bad but it couldn’t compare with the corrosive blades digging under his plastron and making his lungs collapse at the thought of being… this weak in the eyes of his brother, someone he should watch his steps around on their day to day.
He was not. He had proven that so many times. To everyone around him and to himself.
Leo took a deep breath, overcoming the wave of… whatever that was to look at the doctors with a calm, serene expression.
“I know it might look alarming to you since you are unfamiliar with our… craft. I doubt you have met anyone with the same particular set of skills we have,” he explained, as he flipped the knife between his fingers so fast the metal became a bright blur between his hands. With a few causal flickers of his wrist he slid the edge against the stone while keeping his eyes on the humans. He gave it another couple of twists when he was done, touching the newly sharpened edge, his fingers gliding as close to danger as possible to prove a point. This move was more risky, needed better coordination, but he performed it perfectly, going faster and faster, “but Mikey was just passing me the knife because I asked him to,” he explained with a chuckle, finally setting the knife down. Even to his own ears, it sounded painfully fake. This was… getting to him more than he had expected. “We weren’t even playing knife. So I don’t believe–”
“Playing knife!?”
“Yes,” Leo simply said with a curt nod of affirmation.
“And what would a game of knife involve?” Asked Foreman.
“It’s really fun,” said Mikey, his voice a little more hesitant than usual and his body language still a bit unsure as he shifted from one foot to the other. Despite this, his smile was starting to come back at the man’s question, his tone more light and hopeful. “You have to say knife and then throw a knife at the person and they have to catch it. If the person you’re throwing the knife at tries to catch it and you don’t throw it you win a point.”
That was definitely not the answer the doctors were hoping for.
“And that’s your idea of a fun game?” Chase asked, his jaw dropping. “Throwing sharp objects at each other?”
Mikey’s head sunk slightly in his shell, his face dropping again. “There’s also another version that’s called extreme knife but dad only lets Leo and I play that one,” he mumbled quietly, clearly uncomfortable with the way the doctor's attention was focused towards him.
Leo didn’t like it either, not one bit.
“And how d–”
The man’s words were caught in his throat, interrupted by another flying knife, courtesy of Leo. The weapon whistled across the room and, casually lifting his hand, Mikey caught it by the handle with no trouble at all.
“It’s basically the same thing except you don’t warn before throwing,” Leo said, suppressing the small smirk that almost appeared in his face when the ire of the doctors turned immediately towards him.
“And April lets you do this?” Cameron asked, with narrowed eyes and pursed lips after a quick assessment to check that Mikey was fine.
The words took a few seconds to fully process in Leo’s brain.
April? Lets them do this?
The burning, bubbling ardour that Leo had been keeping a tight lid on suddenly crystallised in his chest, spreading to the rest of his body and leaving ice behind. Caustic, stinging cold that filled Leo's entire being. His hands, still laying primly on his lap, twisted into fists.
He gave Cameron a chilling look, trying to convey just how lowly he really thought of her with a twisted sneer. “Our father lets us do that, doctor,” he said stiffly, his voice so frosty that it almost seemed to chill the entire room.
The woman took that in and, to her credit, even as ignorant as she had proven herself to be, realised that she had made a misstep.
Her expression became carefully blank and she conceded Leo’s point with a side nod.
“Alright, I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to be disrespectful” she said, trying to placate him. “But despite your father’s opinion I still don’t think you realise how dangerous these kinds of... games are.”
This time Leo didn’t bother to suppress the sharp smile pulling at his lips as he forced his body to relax, all the tension leaving his frame.
The piercing ice was still there, cursing through his veins and becoming almost unbearable but he welcomed this time. If whatever was pulling his body apart was sharp then it was a weapon. If it was a weapon then Leo could use it.
“Oh?” was all he said, raising a single eyebrow at the woman.
She continued her spiel, ignorant of the danger lurking under Leo’s pleasantly polite expression.
“Maybe you are used to doing that and I am not denying that you’ve had a lot of training and are very good at… at being a ninja,” she said, the last world leaving her mouth in an awkward, clumsy way making it clear that she believed she was indulging him with this admission. “But you’re children and an adult needs to put their foot down because even if you’ve been fine until now, that could change and an accident is always a possibility.”
“I see, that makes sense,” accepted Leo with a placid nod.
“I am not trying to get into a business that isn’t mine but this is a matter of basic safety,” she stressed. “And despite how many times you’ve done this without any problems it only would take a single mistake to turn a game into an emergency. Even professionals have a lot of safety measures when doing something as risky as this.” She was starting to become frustrated, arms crossed and fingers tapping on her arms as she tried to express just how important this was. “The fact that you’re trying to surprise each other with it makes everything even more unsafe. If you want to practise your knife throwing it should always be in a controlled environment, with supervision and against an actual target, never another person no matter how good you are at this.”
“I understand,” Leo said. He paused, silence filling the room for a long moment before he tilted his head slightly in question. “Is that all, doctor Cameron?”
The woman blinked at him, probably having expected a bigger push-back.
“Yes,” she said, visibly taken aback.
Leo’s smile widened slightly. “Good.”
He maintained eye contact, his eyes not leaving Cameron’s own as he said a single word, moving too fast for the doctors to react.
With the way his attention was fully focused on Cameron, he managed to catch the exact moment she felt the throwing knife soar past her face, not quite touching skin but close enough to feel it, to hear it buzz next to her ear letting a couple strands of hair fall on the ground.
Her eyes widened in an emotion Leo had no trouble recognizing. Absolute, mid-numbing terror.
Hm… she had very slow reflexes, Leo couldn’t help but note with a sliver of detached amusement, wouldn’t last long in an actual emergency.
Leo lowered his arm, casually letting his shell fall against the backrest.
“Ah, Doctor Cameron. I just remembered that Dr House got another X-ray of Donnie’s chest. Maybe you could guide me through it. I have tried my best to inform myself but… I am not an expert in medicine,” he said with a self-deprecating shrug. Still, he didn’t break eye contact, his full attention on the frightened woman. He couldn't help but feel proud by the way she flinched back slightly at his words. “But I suppose I don’t need to be. That’s what you’re here for, isn’t it? I understand that treating Donnie is a big responsibility but it’s the only one you have here so it would be for the best if you focused on that, wouldn’t it?” He asked, his voice soft and sickly sweet, matching his oh so placid, incredibly polite expression.
She didn’t answer, shell-shocked after what had just happened. And she wasn’t the only one. Everyone else had also froze, the air becoming thick with tension.
The only person that hadn’t been affected was…
“Ha!” Raph smiled as he fully stepped into the living-room twirling Leo’s small throwing knife between his fingers, oblivious to the scene he had just arrived at. “You’re gonna have to try better than that, fearless.”
Then, he took in the ashen tint in Cameron’s face as she hurriedly left the room without another word and raised a questioning eyebrow at both Leo and–
“What the shell was that!?” Was Mikey’s furious, outraged question as he strode towards the couch.
Oh. Oh, right. He had forgotten Mikey was there.
“No, seriously, why even –? Weren’t you the one saying we should get along?”
Leo’s exact words had been that they should try their best to be civil but he kept his mouth shut because Mikey was still right. Throwing knives at their guests wasn’t very civil, was it?
And now he was rightfully angry at Leo.
Leo was unable to respond, sitting there in silence as the other two doctors practically ran away from the room after their colleague, probably terrified by the crazy turtle that from their perspective had just… decided to start throwing knives at them for no reason.
Raph, for his part, also became silent, taking in the scene with a frown.
Mikey didn’t appreciate Leo’s lack of response.
“Just…!” his youngest brother started with a groan, unable to find his words. “Why did you do that?” he asked, his brown, piercing eyes searching Leo’s face for an answer.
Leo didn’t say anything, kept his expression completely blank and neutral, ignoring the ever present chill that hadn't seen fit to release him yet.
Weirdly, despite his actions, it was still spreading. His shell, the back of his spine… They felt exactly like those times he and his brothers had pranked each other by slipping a couple of ice cubes down someone's neck, in that spot on top of the shell where they couldn't reach easily. His stomach, his chest… his insides were buried in sleet.
The sensation was so physical that he was almost surprised that the measured, controlled breaths he released as he tried to push down all of that didn't come out in white, little puffs.
“Well? Dude, just give me a reason for that one, please.”
Leo couldn’t. Because despite knowing deep down that he would do it again without hesitation, he didn’t even have an actual reason for escalating like that. It just gave them more problems, made the humans more likely to betray them in the future.
He wanted to say that it had been the way Cameron had dismissed their father, had claimed that April was supposed to know better.
But Leo knew… he knew that wasn't true.
Mikey was glaring at Leo now, eyes hard and fierce as they looked down at him. Mikey was not worried about Leo anymore. He was angry at him.
Deep down, something inside Leo relaxed at that thought, relieving some of the pressure weighing in his chest.
Yes. He could work with this.
“I don't have to,” was all Leo said, gently pushing his brother out of the way to reach the laptop again. He didn't even look up at Mikey, fixing his attention on the screen. “How I treat the doctors does not concern you. As sensei said, I am in charge of handling these humans and you will follow my orders regarding that but you have no say in how I act. I did what I believed I had to and now that it's been solved I will get back to what I was doing. You can leave too,” he dismissed with a wave of his hand. “Weren't you busy?”
“Okay. You know what, bro?” Said Mikey with a shake of his head once it was clear that Leo wasn’t going to say anything else. “I’m not really in the mood for the Leo guessing game right now. I can’t believe I’m the only one here not being so–” he cut himself off with a frustrated shout, gesturing at both Raph and Leo in the perfect show of exasperation. “They helped Donnie. Yeah, I know they can be annoying and House is super rude. I don’t like talking to him that much and I’m me! I love talking to everyone! But they’re still helping and Donnie is getting better now. I’m trying my best to make things as good as possible even if it’s hard,” he stressed, his eyes starting to water again, “So if you have a secret problem with Cameron for some reason, you will have to just be cool about it, okay? No more of whatever that was.”
With that, Mikey nodded once and marched out of the place with a firm, determined stride.
Leo breathed deeply, feeling his shoulders loosen just a fraction when the sound of Mikey's retreating steps faded completely.
He typed away for a few seconds, hoping that his other brother would take the hint and leave him alone. Raph didn't seem cooperative though, which wasn't exactly a surprise, but still peeved him.
He was watching Leo carefully, sneaking a few glances at the door every few seconds.
That's what his problem was? He didn't know who he should be with right now?
Leo could help with that decision.
“If you want to spar you’ll have to wait. I am busy right now,” he said, his voice frigid as he let out some of the cold freezing him from the inside.
Raph's frown deepened. “I wasn't–”
Leo cut him off curtly. “Then I don't know why you're still here.”
From the corner of his eye, Leo could see his brother grit his teeth. He opened his mouth again, clearly trying to say something but Leo stopped him.
“I really don’t have the time or the patience for whatever you want to talk about right now, Raph. So why don't you go back to the dojo? Go destroy a punching bag for a bit. As long as you don't break anyone's face it will be a better use of your time than just standing there, bothering me,” he finished.
Without another word, his brother left, shutting the door behind him with a slam.
Finally
Leo breathed deeply, the air leaving his lungs shakily.
Alright, back to what he was doing.
He eyed the screen, trying to make sense of the complicated, technical words filling the page. House was apparently still not convinced the diagnosis was right and, since Leo didn't want to leave any loose ends, he had been taking a look at all the alternatives the older doctor had mentioned.
He wasn't getting much out of it, he had to admit. On a good day, a lot of these terms would fly over his head and right now, his focus was off as he tried his best to ignore the cold nipping at him.
He tugged the laptop slightly closer, sitting back as if changing positions would help anything. As he moved, he found himself reaching towards his wrist, adjusting the bleached piece of fabric tied around it. He should have thrown it away when it had become clear that he couldn't fix it but… It would be wasteful to get rid of Donnie's ruined mask. Maybe he'd find a different solution.
Then, something else caught his attention.
With a dumbfounded expression, Leo watched as, without his input or control, his right hand trembled. Almost imperceptibly at first, then more and more intensely until the movements devolved into violent shaking. His breaths were getting faster too, becoming pinched and shallow.
He turned his hand over, glaring at his palm.
This again? That was… That was ridiculous. He didn't… He didn't even feel that bad. There was no reason to be acting like this right now. Nothing had happened. Leo had been the worst offender in this whole mess.
It seemed like today was one of these days… Thankfully, he had plenty of practice reigning this in.
He grabbed the rebellious limb, clenching his trembling fist once, twice as he forcibly wrestled control of his own body back, burying everything else. The shaking stopped and his breath naturally became deeper, measured. Exactly as it should be.
Good. Alright.
Where was he again?
Right. Endocarditis is a condition caused by–