Leo: I was only 16 when the Kraang invaded, we didn't know what to do and it felt like the whole world was our responsibility...and it didn't take long for that to become true
Raph: we were only 16 when Donnie disappeared, it didn't take long after that for Shredder to take over and we were forced into hiding, beginning a resistance against his regime
Mikey: I wasn't even 20 yet when my family died, I went into the mountains to die after that and before then we were fighting a war with the Foot clan that felt unending and often hopeless
I wanted to post a snippet of what I've been working on for the AU, so take this short scene between Leo and Donbot not too long after they initially get to this dimension :]
Masterpost that has links to other stuff from this AU
“Hey Don, have you noticed the giant dent in your…I guess shell yet?”
“What?” he reached back and grazed his hand over the almost comedic sized indent on his back. “Oh, well that explains a few things,” some of his systems had been acting up, and part of his motor function had started to jitter since he had gotten there but it hadn’t occurred to him that he had sustained damage. No nervous system meant he couldn’t really feel anything on him, much less pain, so anything he did sustain he only knew cause Raph told him or he got a warning from his system. Unless it was bugged…again.
“Here.” Leo patted the floor next to him, “your turn for a tune up.”
Don rolled his eyes (no one could see that though) and sat down with his back turned to Leo who had grabbed a toolkit that Don had stolen from the tech store while they were recovering, just in case. He lifted the plates on his back and heard an ooh boy under Leo’s breath.
“You need any help back there?”
“No, I got it, it’s just gonna take me a while. Donnie taught me some stuff, but I wasn’t anywhere near his speed. We’ll probably be here for a couple hours.”
“Well, my calendar’s been cleared for the foreseeable future. Go to town.”
As Leo worked, he’d ask about different parts to make sure he wasn’t screwing up the wiring job, Don’s antennae twitching with each adjustment, and Don couldn’t help but let his thoughts drift towards the strangeness of it all. Never in a million years did he ever think Leo would be the one fixing his tech, correction: any of his brothers fixing his tech. None of them had shown any interest in his tech outside of using it and even with just him and Raph he’d done his own repairs. He probably could have done this one on his own too but knew Leo would insist so he didn’t bother resisting.
God Leo, it’d felt like centuries since he’d last seen his Leo, much less properly thought about him. The whole apocalypse thing plus being put into a robot body hadn’t really given Don the time to think about his brother…not that he really wanted to. It was gaping sore still, but if he just didn’t acknowledge it then it would go away on its own, right? Eventually…someday…hopefully. Things weren’t exactly peachy keen between him and Leo when he…nope. Nope, nope, not today. It was an accident, he couldn’t have done anything about it, logically it’s not his fault. It’s whoever set off the bomb’s fault. That’s it. Nothing else.
“tss”
Don turned back to see Leo flinch away, reaching for his arm before seeing Don had turned and putting his good hand down.
“Leo?”
“It’s nothing, just pinched my finger, come on I just started reconnecting some wires back.”
“Leo. You’re using the metal arm.” They both knew he wasn’t stupid, much less blind. He shifted around to face Leo who had turned his face away, but Don could see he was clenching his jaw. He also noticed the discoloration around Leo’s shoulder where the robotic arm started, just barely visible under the blue scarf around his neck.
“Where’s the release.”
“Don I’m fine-”
“Not what I asked.”
Leo glared before sighing, “on the underside, close to my armpit there’s a small button on the port that’ll release a lever. Flick that and it loosens so it can be slid out.”
Just as Leo said, Don pressed the button and flicked the lever, hearing a click followed by a hiss. As he gently slid the arm out, he saw the swollen, dark green skin around where the port was.
“Leo, when was the last time you took this off?! An arm this size should only be on for maybe a couple days at most.”
“…two weeks”
“TWO WEEKS?! LEO”
“I know! But we were busy with the resistance, a lot of forces had been lost and there was no time to just take it off and sit. The Kraang were closing in and I had to be on guard, they could’ve attacked at any moment…and they did.”
“But why didn’t you take it off when you woke up, we’ve been here for a while now.”
“…” Don took in Leo’s furrowed brow and set jaw as a sign this wasn’t something he should pry about for now.
“Alright, fine. Just know you’re lucky I grabbed extra supplies on my initial run.”
“But what about your dent?”
Don put his back plates down, “it’s fine, I can fix it later. Not my first time repairing myself in a reflection.” Leo chuffed and Donnie got up to grab the medical supplies. He turned back to see Leo had already begun working on the infection.
“Hey where’d you get those,” Don gestured to the tweezers and gauze Leo had suddenly acquired.
“Medi bag,” he gestured to the pouch on his side, “all good medics have one.”
“Oh, so what I’m hearing is you’re a hypocrite.” If Don could, he’d be grinning ear to ear. Doesn’t matter which Leo it is, it’ll always be fun to jab at them.
“Ha ha, very funny, I can almost hear the smirk.” Don sat down next to Leo’s infected shoulder and put the gauze up to the port, gently pushing out the dark yellow gunk in it, breaking up the chunks he felt before easing them out. Thank god he couldn’t feel it when it leaked on his hand, although seeing it wasn’t much better.
“So, am I gonna have to raid the clinic again?”
“No, this is just surface level. The arm irritates the area, but Donnie made sure that the port itself was ‘perfect’,” he did a “chef’s kiss” gesture as he said it. Other him must’ve had some flair for the dramatic, but he couldn’t blame the guy, the amount of skill put into Leo’s port alone showed off an immense knowledge of engineering. Don would be dramatic too if he had this level of skill.
“I’m guessing the arm itself wasn’t his decision then.” Leo’s brow furrowed more as he seemed sink into himself a bit. Shouldn’t have said that idiot.
“No, it wasn’t.”
“…it’s his tech though, his style is hard not to see.”
“Yeah, Donnie was big on the branding,” Leo chuckled a bit, “made sure EVERYTHING had the genius tech logo on it, down to the plumbing.”
