°•{Tmnt Drabbles/oneshots! OCs included!!}•°

2012-💥-Good one!

Okay! This is based around a Headcannon of mine that k12 mikey is transfem and not Leo. i don't see Leo as trasfem, but i respect everyone else who does! after all its a headcannon!

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The four turtles crowded close in their underground lair of the New York City sewers. Artistically strong and comfortable in its own crude way, their home bore the touch of Donatello as much as it did the wilful negligence of Michelangelo, known affectionally as Mikey. But today, even the lair's inviting familiarity seemed to withdraw from the room. Something was different.

Michelangelo, the life of the party, the jokester, wearing an uncharacteristically stern expression, gestured to everyone to draw near. Leo, Donny, Raph and their father, the wise old Master Splinter came together, bracing for a storm they didn't see brewing.

"I...uh...have something..." Michelangelo stuttered, her usually animated voice barely above a murmur, "... something to tell y'all."Her brothers looked at her. "You okay, Mikey?" Leo asked, his leadership sentiment trickling through. Mikey nodded, courage burning in her eyes.

"I am... I am... I am a girl. I wanna be called Mimi.."Silence hung heavy in the room. "A... a girl?" Raph repeated, disbelief cutting through his voice. He burst out laughing, "Good one, Mikey!"But Mikey was not laughing. Leo looked at her, noticing the pain in her eyes, and the emptiness of the smile that tried to cover it up. He spoke, "Mikey, or should I say, Mimi, if this is who you are, we are with you." The room went silent again, Splinter's silence the most profound.Leo spent the next few days trying his best to support his sister, correcting himself each time he said 'he' or 'Michelangelo'. Donnie, too, was trying to adapt, mostly staying quiet and letting his unconditional support speak for itself.Raph, however, seemed stuck in his belief that it was a joke, a prank that had dragged on too long. And Splinter, the old, wise rat who had raised them - he was disappointed.

Sometimes Mimi would catch him staring at her, a confusion and sadness in his eyes. "Is it hard for you?" Leo asked her one night.
"Does it matter?" Mimi shot back, bitterness seeping into her voice."Do you wish to go back, to pretend it was all a prank?" Leo asked gently, understanding that it was fear speaking, not his sister.Mimi was silent for a long moment. "Sometimes," she admitted, "Sometimes, denial seems easier than acceptance. It feels disappointing to be who I am...""You're our sister, Mimi. Nothing changes that," Leo said, offering her a comforting rub on the shell.The following day, Mimi decided to play along with Raph's belief. "It was indeed a prank, Raph!" she blurted out, mustering up a laughter that fell short.

The disappointment on Leo's face was unmistakable and she could see him deflate. Yet, he didn't argue or deny it, and Mimi found herself missing the support that she had drawn from him.She insisted on being addressed as 'Michelangelo', she told everyone to use 'he'. And each time someone did, she would also insist that it didn't bother herBut it did.Each 'he', each 'Michelangelo', felt like a punch to her gut. It wasn't just about the pronouns or the name. It was about erasing the person she revealed herself to be, burying it deep inside and slapping on a fake smile.

"He...Michelangelo...is fine," she would murmur, the weight of rejection growing heavier each time Master Splinter called her son and not his daughter.One night, in her desperation to end this charade, Mimi found herself at Leo's bedside. "Leo," she choked out, tears streaming down her face, "I can't...I can't be Michelangelo anymore."And Leo, who had been waiting for this, pulled his sister into a comforting hug, "I know, Mimi. And you don't have to be."

"I can't...I'm not strong like you, Leo," Mimi sobbed harder. "I can't continue being Mikey anymore. It tears me apart." Her every word jabbed a dagger into Leo's heart."I understand, Mimi," Leo said with the sincerity of someone who had born the brunt of others' expectations. "But you also have to know that you are stronger than you think. You are brave enough to confront your identity, and that's no small task."

There was something about Leo's words that gave Mimi the courage to face her family again."Thank you.." she breathed.When the rest of her family were gathered, Mimi used every modicum of courage left and voiced out her deepest, most consuming fear. "I am not Mikey, I am Mimi."
Immediately, a heavy silence befell the room, each inhabitant too shocked to respond. It was Raph who broke the silence. "This Joke again?" he asked, his voice taut with worry."No, Raph," Leo responded firmly. "Mimi is serious."

Splinter, the wise old rat that was their mentor and father-figure, seemed to bristle at the exchange. He staggered back, leaning heavily on his cane. "Michelangelo is a boy!" he barked, his usually calm demeanor exchanged for flared anger. "A boy, not a girl." His voice echoed around the vast expanse of their home, his denial bouncing off the moist sewer walls.

But Leo, ever the protective brother, stood his ground. "And who decides that, Sensei?" he retorted, looking at Splinter with a pissed look on hos snout, once he never showed the rat he respected.. "Who decides who Mimi is, if not her?"
The echo of Leo's bold retort caused a shift in the atmosphere of the room, leaving a palpable tension. But at the very least, Mimi wasn't alone anymore. As she sobbed quietly, her brothers at her side, she knew she had at least one ally. Leo, her rock, her bulwark, his hand on her shoulder providing her comfort. For now, that was enough..