The Shadow's Secret│TMNT

15 || The Turtles' Father

I returned to the lair the next night. Leo had messaged me telling me to bring my notebooks this time, so I stood in an alley with my backpack full, occasionally glancing aver at the manhole cover sitting in the pavement.

"Raiya!" Leo hissed, peeking his head out. He waved me over and I quickly climbed down.

He smiled down at me. "Hi."

I returned the smile. "Hi. So I'm meeting your rat Sensei tonight?" I asked, following him through the tunnels.

"Yep, excited?"

"Oh super."

"Don't worry. I told him about you last night after you left so he's had twenty-four hours to calm down about it."

I cringed. "How'd he take it?"

"Not too bad. I only got five hours in the Ha'shi."

I recoiled in shock. "Five hours in the what?"

"The Ha'shi. It's Sensei's form of punishment. I have to balance on cinder blocks and balance eggs on chopsticks and one on my head."

"For five hours!?" I exclaimed. How the hell can he do that!? Standing on one foot is pushing my balance to the limits!

Leo shrugged. "It's not that bad after the first half an hour."

"Why was he so mad?" I breathed.

"Well the first rule I broke was going above ground. The second one was interfering in the lives of humans. The third was revealing myself to a human and the fourth was lying about not doing all of that. And since I'm supposed to be the most responsible of all my brothers he was even more disappointed."

I frowned. "That doesn't seem fair, why does he expect more from you than the others? Donnie seems like he'd be the least likely to break rules."

"Well I'm the oldest, and he kinda chose me to be the leader."

"You're the leader?" I glanced over at him and he smiled shyly. "That's pretty cool."

"Sort of. Raph doesn't take it very well."

I snorted. "Does he take anything well?"

Leo chuckled. "Not really."

"How did he react to me?" I asked, curious.

Leo grimaced. "Almost as bad as Sensei."

"Holy shit. So he really must hate me."

He shook his head. "No. He's mad at me for lying to everyone and revealing ourselves to a human. Which is why I told you not to let him get to you because he'll probably let his anger out on you, which I apologize in advance for."

"Oh no worries, I've always wanted an asshole brother."

He grinned. "I sense sarcasm."

"Yeah, that tends to be a common symptom when people are around me."

Leo hopped up into the circular tunnel that led to the lair entrance and glanced back at me before opening the door. "You ready?"

"Have I ever mentioned that I really don't like rats?"

He grinned and swung the door open, allowing me to hear the pounding of drums, then he helped me inside. While he locked the door, I looked into the jam room to find Mikey at the drum set.

He waved a drumstick in greeting and kept playing, "Hey girl, long time no see!"

"Mikey!" Leo yelled, but his brother didn't hear him, so he yelled louder. The turtle smashed his drumsticks over the cymbals.