No.23 - Tumblr Posts

Day 19, 23- shidekobushi

19 was hard, so this is what came of it. It's not my strongest work, but it's still finished. That's all that matters^^

prompts- floral bouquet and stalking- Bakugou has a stalker, one who he sees as nothing more than an annoyance. but this wouldn't be a whump story if she was just an annoyance ;) mostly really this is slice of life with whump^^

AO3 link- https://archiveofourown.org/works/50331565

A hero needed to be constantly aware of their surroundings, able to tell the slightest difference between movements to make sure they’re not caught off guard, and Katsuki lived by that code. Even though he ignored all the stares he’d become more aware of after Kamino, and very much ignored how anxious that made him feel, he still noticed who was staring at him, assessing their threat status, or how annoying they were. The top of that list right now was this dumb little brunette from support, who hadn’t stopped staring at him for almost a month now. If he flicked his eyes over to her, glaring strongly, she always turned her head to the side, and it tightened the dread that had started building in his gut. There were two scenarios where someone would need to stare at him for so long, and one was particularly worse than the other. The first was simple, they were a threat to him, either challenging his authority or prowess, and he could deal with them easily. The second drove him up the wall. Ever since middle school, where the other kids had finally begun to notice the other gender, or the same gender depending on which way they swung, he’d been plagued by other people leaving chocolates on his desk, slipping little notes into his locker, or worst of all, actually talking to him with a nervous smile and hopeful eyes, asking him for coffee or to go on a walk.

He might take a little too much pleasure shutting them down sometimes, but watching as their faces collapsed when he bluntly turned them down was his consolation prize for being forced to deal with this shit in the first place. It was their own fault really, he’d made it very clear that he had no interest in romance, especially not the ‘traditional’ way. He always thought it was so stupid, leaving terrible chocolate or pieces of worthless paper with shitty drawings all over it. If he ever became interested in romance, (which he absolutely doubted but the old hag kept telling him she was the same way when she was his age but she found herself wanting it as she got older so he supposed it was technically possible) he would be the one doing the ‘wooing’ or whatever shit it was called. He wasn’t a coward, he’d just go up to the person and tell them and start dating them. He would never be approached by anyone and actually accept it.

Katsuki had hoped to dissuade her by loudly talking about how he didn’t date around her. His friends had asked him if he’d ever dated before coming to U.A., and he’d taken advantage of the opportunity. Ashido was the most perceptive in the class when it came to unnecessary emotions, calling the couples that would eventually get together with disturbing accuracy, so he’d thought that she’d asked because she also noticed the girl and was putting feelers out if he was interested. He’d tried to make it blatantly obvious that he wasn’t to get her to back off, but that just seemed to spur her on. Not even yelling at her to leave him alone worked, at least Deku listened to that.

When she started showing up at places he went, he started to get very uncomfortable. She would never actually engage with him, just be there, at arm’s length, constantly making the hair on the back of his neck stand up. Dread mixed with anxiety that he refused to admit was anxiety, telling himself that it was just some stupid bitch who couldn’t read a fucking room. Deku had been similar, though he actually had been invited to the places he was going because the old hag had insisted on inviting Auntie Inko and inviting Auntie always meant Deku coming too. The damn nerd may have constantly stared and asked too many questions, but at least he wasn’t always at the edge of his perception, raising his hackles every goddamn time. His skin crawled every time he saw her, when he decided to get Lunch Rush’s food rather than make his own she was always there, when he went to the gym to spar or workout she was always there pretending to work out, when all of his classmates were outside enjoying the sun and he was studying away from them (but not too far away) she was always on another bench or behind a tree. This dumb extra was fucking insane, apparently, and eventually he went back to ignoring her, hoping that complete disinterest in her actions would work.

It hadn’t, much to his dismay.

“You know, dude, maybe we should just start inviting that girl to go with us places.” Kaminari said lightly, ignoring Katsuki’s glare. “We already know she’s gonna be there anyways, might as well give her an invitation.”

“I barely tolerate you fucks, invite her and I’ll stick your head to the top of the flagpole.” Katsuki growled, trying to suppress how uncomfortable that made him.

“But if we do, then she’ll see how much better boyfriend material I am.” Kaminari laughed, puffing up his nonexistent chest. “That’ll get her off your back.”

Tense muscles unwound just a little as Katsuki recognized that Kaminari was actually trying to help, just in the stupidest way possible. He supposed he shouldn’t have been surprised, he’d named the idiot Dunce Face for a reason, and not just because of his whey mode.

But the idea still made him pause. “Aren’t you literally always trying to get into Ears’ pants? And Mindfreak’s now too?”

Kaminari looked quickly over to where the two purples were… off purpling, he didn’t fucking know and he didn’t care. All he cared about was Dunce Face kept inviting more and more people to be in their little group that Katsuki couldn’t escape and it really pissed him the fuck off.

“I mean, yeah, but there’s always the ‘make em jealous’ route.” Kaminari said, once he realized his two purples were out of earshot.

“That literally never works, you’re just a fucking idiot.” Katsuki said, ignoring the fact that he was actually somehow giving relationship advice. God, what was his life now?

Kaminari sort of deflated with too much emotion for Katsuki to process all of them. “Well, I don’t know what else to do! I flirt with them, and they just make fun of me.”

“As they should.”

“Kacchan!” Kaminari huffed. “My point is, I’m running out of ideas here. A guy can only take so much friendly ribbing before he goes crazy!”

“Why are you asking me?” Katsuki in disbelief.

“Because I’ve already asked everyone else, and nothing’s working.” Kaminari whined.

“Maybe if you stop being such a huge idiot all the time, they might pay attention to you.” Katsuki scoffed, rolling his eyes. “Get better lines, I’m so fucking sick of the shitty ones you have. If you say another corny ass bullshit one-liner, I’m throwing you out the window.”

“Hey, my lines are awesome!” Kaminari said, getting another eye roll and scoff.

“Sure, if you’re five or in one of those god awful romance movies.”

Kaminari pouted. “I don’t know what that girl sees in you.”

Katsuki didn’t either.

“Girl?” Ah, hell, Ashido. Great, way to make this conversation worse. “Is there a girl? Oh my god, Bakugou do you like someone?”

“Fuck no.” Katsuki barked, making her pout.

“Nah, we’re talking about Kacchan’s stalker.” Kaminari said, saving him from another lecture about not yelling at people who ask stupid questions. “We don’t know what she sees in him.”

“Fuck you, I’m great.” Katsuki snapped. “If I did want to date someone, which I don’t, but if I did, I’d be the greatest fucking boyfriend ever. Your stupid pickup lines wouldn’t be good enough to lick the dirt off my boots.”

Kaminari cringed at his crudeness, but Ashido just stared at him with her too knowing eyes. “You know, Bakugou, if you keep that up, you’ll end up single for the rest of your life.”

“Good.” Katsuki snarled. “Romance is for the weak minded.”

“Mm, you say that now.” Ashido said, still staring at him. “I still swear by the end of second year, you’ll be with someone. I just know it.”

Katsuki blanched a little, deciding to never date anyone ever while he was here at U.A. just to spite her, even if the world turned upside down and he somehow actually wanted to. Kaminari laughed at his face, which Katsuki ended with a hard smack! to his arm.

“Don’t laugh at me!”

“Sorry, Kacchan but you should’ve seen your face.” Kaminari said, rubbing his arm but still giggling a little. Bastard.

“I don’t date. At all.” Katsuki stated bluntly. “Least of all her. She’s a fucking creep.”

“If you’re uncomfortable around her, why don’t you just tell her to leave you alone, and that you’re not interested?” Mina asked.

Katsuki’s eye twitched. “I have. She won’t take the fucking hint.”

“Just tell someone, then.” Mina shrugged, as if it were that easy. “I’m sure one of the teachers would step in for stalking. Pretty sure it’s against the rules or something. Or we could do it, maybe she’ll listen to us.”

“I don’t need anyone to ‘step in’, I don’t need help.” Katsuki growled. “I can handle this on my own, without anyone meddling in my fucking business.”

Katsuki just needed her to just make her stupid public confession, so he could embarrass her in front of everyone to get her to stop. Humiliating her was becoming his last option to get her to fucking stop. He didn’t know if anything else would work since nothing else was.

Mina just shrugged at him again, and the conversation moved back to Kaminari’s pathetic attempts to get into their other friends’ pants, and Katsuki tried to forget about her for a while.

“Bakubro, stalker alert.” Kirishima murmured to him as they were at their lockers, the last bell having rung a few minutes ago.

Katsuki turned and the dumb bitch was actually walking towards him, her arms behind her back, like she was holding something. Finally.

“What, stalker?” Katsuki snapped as she finally came up to him.

“Um, it’s Seiko.” She said, and he internally facepalmed that she thought he had just mispronounced her name. Though, the fact that her parents named her ‘psycho’ seemed apt.

His throat was getting a little tight, and he wasn’t sure why. She wasn’t dangerous, just creepy. He should’ve been able to breathe just fine. His eye had twitched at her stupidity, but it was still going, and Katsuki was starting to get a little dizzy. What the hell?

“I’ve been admiring you from afar,” not too fucking far, “and I thought that maybe, since I know you like coffee,” she sounded like she knew some personal secret, and Katsuki rolled his eyes. Everyone knew he liked coffee. “a-and well. I thought that maybe you’d like to go out for a coffee with me this friday?”

Katsuki meant to yell at her, but his throat was now very tight, as if it was closing. Something was wrong, he just couldn’t figure out what the hell was going on.

Taking his silence as hesitant permission to keep going, she went on, “I-I brought you these! I overheard you saying you liked them the other day, so. Here.”

And then it made sense.

This dumb fucking bitch pulled out shidekobushi from behind her back, her hands jerky in her movements. She was right, he had mentioned them the other day, but not because he liked them.

He’d been telling his friends he was deathly allergic to them.

They’d been discussing taking a weekend trip somewhere, to blow off steam and just spend some quality time together, and he’d been forced to join the conversation. Mina had floated the idea of going to Tajimi, because this was the season the rare flower shidekobushi were in bloom, and Tajimi was one of the only places in Japan to see them.

“We’re not going there.” Katsuki had said authoritatively.

“Kacchan, just because you don’t really like flowers doesn’t mean it’s not a cool experience.” Mina had protested, frowning.

“We’re not going there.” Katsuki had repeated. “If you go there, I’m not going.”

“Come on, bro, the point is to do things as a group.” Kirishima had put his hand on Katsuki’s shoulder briefly. “Everyone goes, even if it’s not our first choice.”

“I’m not fucking going.” Katsuki had snapped. “I’ve been there before.”

“And we’ve all been to the maid cafe Denki dragged us to too, and that’s still an option.” Mina had insisted. “Besides, I’ve never been, and I want to go.”

“I can’t!” Katsuki had sighed angrily, rubbing his nose trying to deal with their annoying bullshit. His voice had gotten low, instinctively trying to protect himself from being overheard. Admitting this was already hard enough. “Last time I went, I ended up in the hospital.”

That had caught his friends’ attention. “Dude, why?”

“Because I got fucking taken out by fucking flowers.” Katsuki had whispered grumpily. He hated admitting any weakness, but he couldn’t play with his own life like that. He couldn’t be a hero if some stupid flower fucking killed him, no matter how much he hated it. Stupid bastards for pushing him all the time, they always made him admit things he didn’t want to. How fucking dare they learn his weaknesses? “I can’t be around them, they make me sick.”

Thankfully, Kirishima had had the good grace to also whisper because they all knew how hard this was for him, Kirishima especially. “Like allergic? Like how bad?”

“Bad.” Katsuki had said. “If you wanna go there, I’m not going. I don’t fuck around with that.”

They’d all agreed that that was off the table, and Katsuki had all but forgotten talking about it.

Until he had those exact flowers shoved in his face by a crazy stalker who’d only overheard part of the conversation.

Katsuki’s eyes went wide as his throat immediately closed, his hand coming to his throat as the world began to spin. He gasped for air like a fish out of water, the air never making it to his lungs as his throat closed completely. He stumbled backwards, feeling Kirishima catch him as his eyes unfocused as the room began to spin faster. Kirishima lowered them to the ground, Katsuki’s body jerking convulsively as he kept trying and failing to breathe.

Voices filtered in his head, and he lost track of them, black spots flashing across his eyes so fast he didn’t notice when his eyes rolled back in his head.

“I don’t understand! I heard him!”

“Get those flowers away from him! He’s allergic!”

“Does anyone have an epi-pen?”

“I’m sorry!”

“Someone get Recovery Girl!”

“He can’t breathe!”

The convulsions stopped, his eyes fluttered closed, and his attempts at getting air stopped. Darkness overtook him like a tsunami, not even giving him time to lament the fact that he’d just been killed by a fucking flower of all things, only giving him the slightest feeling of something sharp in his leg.

The first thing he became conscious of was breathing a full breath and then immediately choking on it, coughing as he wheezed awake. He got his eyes open, blinking heavily at the too strong light, but the world stayed in place instead of spinning and he could breathe again so he could thank the stars he hadn’t just been killed by a fucking flower. Stupid fucking immune system.

“Easy, Bakugou, take it easy.” It took a moment but his vision justified Aizawa into focus. “Recovery Girl will be here in a minute, just breathe.”

Honestly, breathing was still a little hard to do, but he shook his head anyway. “Can walk.”

“I know you can, I’m just not letting you.” Aizawa said. He opened his mouth in protest, but the hand he discovered was on his shoulder pressed down. “Epinephrine is taken best laid down, we need to make sure it’s still properly in your system, and right now what I say goes. You can yell at me later, problem child, after this is over.”

Katsuki decided he was definitely going to do that, this pissed him off. He was perfectly capable of walking to Recovery Girl’s office under his own power.

“Can you tell me what happened?” Aizawa said, distracting him from his anger. “I’m getting a lot of conflicting stories.”

“Crazy stalker bitch.” Katsuki panted, his eyes searching for her. But he found there wasn’t anyone else around him, they were all down the hall, Vlad King blocking off anyone from getting near him. Alright, maybe he won’t yell so much at Aizawa, that was clearly his doing. “Brought stupid fucking flowers as if I’d like that. ‘M allergic to them.”

“We noticed that.” Aizawa muttered. “Your friends say she’s been stalking you for about a month now, and that you repeatedly turned her down. Do you think it might have been intentional?”

Katsuki shook his head. He hated this bitch and hoped to never see her again, but he wouldn’t purposefully get someone in trouble for something they didn’t do. He had his own code of honor, even if other people didn’t understand it. “Don’t think so. Think she just misheard me. She never got close enough to hear shit properly, and she asked me out rather than say it was revenge, so I think she’s just fucking dumb.”

“Are you absolutely sure?” Aizawa asked. “She did shove them in your face from what I’ve heard.”

“I’m sure.” Katsuki nodded. “Not the first time someone’s shoved stuff at me because of this romance bullshit. First time it was flowers though. Usually it’s chocolate.”

“Alright, that’s good.” Aizawa said.  “And you didn’t come to anyone about having a stalker for a month… why?”

“She was just a girl with a stupid crush.” Katsuki said obviously. “She wasn’t a threat. Figured she’d ask me out eventually, and thought turning her down would get her to stop. Wasn’t supposed to be a big deal.”

“If there’s a next time, problem child, tell me anyway, I don’t care.” Aizawa said bluntly. “Stalkers can devolve very easily into dangerous situations, or they can do dumb things like get you flowers you’re allergic to and become threats in a matter of seconds.”

Katsuki pouted, didn’t nod but also didn’t refuse. Aizawa took that as acceptance.

“Get better students and I won’t have to deal with this.”

Aizawa glared at him. He glared back.

“Since it seems to be accidental,” Aizawa said. Katsuki declared the staring contest a draw. “I don’t think suspension or expulsion are necessary, just an apology and maybe a restriction order. Do you agree?”

“I don’t want that bitch anywhere near me.” Katsuki growled. “And she can stuff her apology up her ass, I don’t fucking need pathetic words.”

Aizawa just nodded at him. “I’ll have her write one anyway, you don’t have to read it.”

Katsuki just huffed.

“Alright, Recovery Girl is here.” Aizawa said, and Katsuki could hear the whir of a transport and crutch along with footsteps. “Be nice, problem child.”

Katsuki opened his mouth, and Aizawa just glared again. “Be nice.”

He was yelling at his bastard teacher again.

Whumptober day 23 - Bleeding Out

For my 23rd fill for @whumptober2019, I wrote this pre-WinterIron story in an AU with supernatural creatures. It’s also available on Ao3.

----- ----- -----

It had happened so quickly that Tony honestly couldn’t quite recall what happened. One moment he was calmly walking down the street; the next, he found himself lying in an alley, bleeding out from multiple stab wounds.

Weakly, he tried to sit up, only to fall back down the one inch he’d managed when the pain hit him.

“Help?” he tried, but he couldn’t quite manage to speak any louder than a whisper.

Closing his eyes, he wondered if he should just resign himself to his fate. His attacker had taken his phone, though there was no way the guy would manage to hack his way in - JARVIS himself kept Tony’s phone safe and inaccessible to anyone but him.

At least it meant that JARVIS would be able to find the person who’d done this to him.

He wasn’t sure why, either. It had occurred to him that it might be a mugging, but his wallet was still safe in his pocket. Only his phone had been taken, making sure he wouldn’t be able to call for help.

Maybe it was because of who he was. An actual assassination attempt for being Tony Stark. He had no illusions about being perfect, but… He’d been helping, right? His weapons kept American soldiers safe, and his multitude of other inventions made lives easier and more comfortable. More and more, he’d been moving to the fields that had truly interested him when he’d been learning about engineering and programming.

He thought he’d been doing better.

No words had been exchanged, not as far as he could recall. Just gloved hands and a sharp knife, before he was left alone to die.

No reason had been given at all.

Cold was creeping up on him, but he couldn’t even shiver. Instead, all he could do was look up at the dark sky.

Weirdly enough, the thought hit him that he would’ve preferred to die under the light of the stars, however difficult they might be to see in the middle of New York City - instead, there were clouds obscuring them, making the sky look empty and dreary.

He tried to swallow, failing and coughing instead. It made pain rush through him once again, and he couldn’t help his stifled moan. Damn, but he didn’t want to die. Not yet. There was so much he still wanted to do, so much he still thought he could improve. Now that he was finally old and settled enough that the board listened to him when he suggested avenues other than weapons, he’d been getting to where he’d wanted to take Stark Industries since he’d been young.

He didn’t want to die yet.

Focusing on the clouds, however dreary they were, he tried to keep on breathing. The longer he could manage to keep surviving, the more time there was for someone to perhaps find him and get him to a hospital.

There wasn’t a lot he could move, but he did still have his expensive leather wallet and a somewhat functioning right arm. So, trying to keep his breathing steady, he slowly reached for his wallet, letting his arm fall back down once he’d gotten a hold of it. Victory. Then, slowly, he started slapping it onto the ground.

It didn’t make much of a sound, but at least it was more than his voice could produce.

Damn, Pepper would be so pissed at him. Not to mention Rhodey. And Obie, too.

He just hoped Happy wouldn’t feel too bad for suddenly falling ill. That wasn’t something he could help, after all, and there was no way Tony was forcing the man to keep acting as a bodyguard when he should be home and resting.

As he grew increasingly cold, he just found himself wishing he could get a message to them somehow. Not even to save him anymore - he wasn’t sure that was even possible, not with his injuries and the amount of blood he’d lost, though he was still determined to keep trying. But just to let them know that he cared, and that he knew how incredibly lucky he had been to have them in his life and caring for him.

Honestly, it wasn’t even that bad anymore. The pain was starting to fade out of awareness, and instead he mostly felt tired. It was becoming a struggle to keep his eyes open, and his slow tapping with the wallet was tapering off into a silence filled only with his increasingly strained breathing.

Until a shadow appeared above him.

It wasn’t much of a shadow, not with the lack of light, but it woke Tony up just a little. Not enough to speak, not with the way every breath was a struggle by now, but enough to look at the man that had appeared.

He was attractive - shoulder-length brown hair, intense light eyes, and a highly attractive stubble adorning a jawline that had Tony envious. His broad build and dark clothes should probably have felt threatening, but he was honestly beyond that. Instead, he found himself wondering if it would be possible to experience one last touch, one last confirmation. If it would be possible not to die on his own.

“Oh, sweetheart… That don’t look good,” he said softly, and Tony managed the slightest shiver at the sound of his voice. It was like a warm blanket surrounding him, leaving him feeling peaceful and comforted.

Even more than before, he struggled to keep his eyes open. He wasn’t alone anymore, and he wanted to savor every moment of it.

Which was why he could observe the contemplative look on the man’s face as he looked down at Tony, as well as the exact moment he appeared to come to a decision. As well as the exact moment fangs descended from the sides of his mouth.

Rather than feeling afraid, or threatened, Tony just gave into it. The touch of lips on the wound that appeared to have just missed his heart was more gentle than he thought anyone but Rhodey had touched him in years. It didn’t take long, not with how much he’d bled already, and for a brief moment he wondered if the vampire had decided to simply take advantage of the situation and drain him completely.

Then there was a wrist in front of his mouth, the tiniest slice releasing a clear liquid. The moment the taste hit him, Tony couldn’t help but latch on, drinking as deeply as he could in his weakened state.

Vaguely, he was aware of a large hand cradling his head as he sucked, stroking his hair just a little. He leaned into it just a little, aware he was probably acting like a cat desperate for attention, but he couldn’t help himself. Already, it felt like coming home.

Still incredibly gently, the vampire pulled his wrist away. It was tempting to follow, to taste some more of that ambrosia, but that would mean pulling away from the hand still stroking his hair. So he leaned into it, into the vampire’s body. He knew it shouldn’t be, but to him, it felt warm and safe.

As the Change set in, he could feel the way he was picked up gently in a bridal carry, allowing his head to fall against that strong chest. In response, the arms tightened just a little to pull him even closer.

There was a soft whisper, barely audible. “I’ll take care of you now, sweetheart.”

Then, everything went black.

Whumptober: You Break It, You Buy It (2/3)

Leonardo could not stand it anymore.

Locked in a cage, muzzled, stuck in a room blacker than space where the only thing he could hear was the cries of other animals- No, not animals. Creatures, beasts. Artificially made and genetically improved until they were nigh indestructible. Beasts larger than most living things he had ever seen. For some, it was a wonder they were still breathing, with oddly placed nostrils on flattened faces. All desperately screaming until somebody came in, injected them with another chemical cocktail, and then left as they went silent.

The cage was too small, too cramped. He could barely stand up on two legs, let alone stretch out on four. Of course, though, he should have expected that. Playing the dumb animal card did that, he guessed.

Suddenly, the lights flicked on, blindingly bright, white light that overwhelmed his senses but god he could see again.

...Nevermind. He wanted the blindness back.

He thought the creatures he had to be around were bad enough just going off of sound. It was so much worse when he could actually see them.

Some were actually kind of cute, small and fluffy, but with jaws that parted into three and multiple rows of teeth. There were some that were shaped like bears, just make them bigger and set them aflame. Across from his cage was something long and spindly with boney, spider-like legs and six eyes that fixated on him.

Leonardo shifted uncomfortably under its gaze, making himself as small as he could as he took in the area. The gaps between cages were extremely wide, possibly to keep conflict to a minimum, and the cages themselves were of varying sizes, stacked carefully to avoid toppling. The roof, to house the bigger creatures, was extremely tall, high enough that Leonardo probably could have fit a house or two inside that one room.

Somebody drove a forklift into the room, moving in the gaps between the cages, and picked up one of them, moving it onto a conveyor belt. Slowly, the cages that were small enough to be moved were moved out, disappearing one by one, until it was just him in a mostly empty room with only a few of the larger creatures for company.

The forklift drove over to him at last, then stopped, the person who drove it hopping out and crouching down in front of him.

“You’re the prize piece of this show,” They drawled with a smirk, causing Leonardo’s heart to jump into his throat. “Everybody’s been waiting for you.”

%%%

The fact that Leonardo was probably dead did not stop them from searching.

Each of them had done their part. Raphael helped manage current crime while they planned, Donatello provided them with tech and medicine in case something went wrong, and Michelangelo scoped out the complex almost daily to make sure nothing had changed. When they were all together, they had tried to research what that place even was.

Key word: Tried.

Nothing came up about the building. Ever. Sometimes they would catch glimpses of "government owned" or "private property", but nothing more than that. It was like it never existed in the first place. They knew better, though.

"So here's the plan," Raphael said one day after gathering them together, "When we get there, what we're going to do is…"

%%%

The muzzle got torn off of Leonardo and the man reeled backwards before he could try to do anything. Then, he clambered back into the forklift and lifted him up, leaving Leonardo to scramble for a foothold as the cage tipped slightly. In the end, though, he fell in an ungraceful pile in a corner, pressed up against the bars and waiting for his situation to be a bit more stable.

Sure enough, he was placed on the conveyor belt and got moved along to… Wherever they decided they were going to take him. He slowly rose to his feet as the light in the corridor slowly grew and faded as he passed the yellow emergency lights. But finally, he came to a stop at a large metal door that slowly opened to allow him through. As its gaping maw opened, Leonardo froze.

About fifty-odd pairs of eyes, all locked on him while the conveyor belt kept moving him forward to the end of a stage. Was stage the right term? It sure felt like it.

His skin crawled and he felt like his scales were just going to raise up and fall off. Something squirmed in his chest, wet and disgusting like worms and slime and other insects crawling around, as warm as the sewers got in the summer when the heat was trapped underground and made everyone miserable. He spent his whole life learning to hide from humans, that the shadows were his friends and to ask for their aid as much as possible when risking getting seen. But now? Now, there were no shadows. There were only eyes and lights fixated on him and mumbles and whispers ran their course through the crowd.

His breathing hitched when an electric jolt came from the collar, a voice from a speaker in it followed up when: “Get moving, the people want to see something from you.”

Not wanting another jolt, although very bitter about it, Leonardo paced back and forth, keeping his gaze locked onto the crowd in case they tried anything. It wasn’t everyday he was placed in front of so many watching eyes like he was some attraction at a zoo.

“Here we have number 131. It doesn’t have a species name yet, nor an actual name, however, we can tell that it is most likely extremely intelligent, having about the same intelligence of an adult human,” Oh. They knew? Well that was alarming, at the very least. “The auction will start at $200,000.”

He was certainly flattered that they believed him to be worth that much, but there was still that flare of anger about being sold like an object. A few voices raised, the amount getting higher than the last with every new offer, until finally-

"Sold! To the man in white."

Shoot.

%%%

They had hovered on a rooftop for what felt like hours while watching vans of various sizes leave one by one, along with a handful of normal cars. Had they had some kind of event or something? From the outside, the people who ran the complex didn't seem to have a lot of connections, but who knew what they were capable of.

Raphael dug his fingers into the concrete of the roof and shifted from side to side anxiously, looking to the others occasionally to see if he was alone in his fidgeting.

Donatello watched the people below, leaned against the edge of the roof and looking almost thoughtful, but he was drumming his fingers against his thigh, seeming as nervous as Raphael.

Michelangelo was more obvious about his apprehension, shifting side to side, turning, and pacing. Occasionally, he'd pull out his Shell Phone, but never for long, going back to his previous cycle almost instantly.

Everybody had cleared out, Raphael realized. Once he gave the signal, they'd have to be on edge and constantly aware to avoid falling victim to the same fate as their oldest.

Raphael waved his hand anyway, well aware of the risks, and made the jump past the barbed wire.

The entrance was easy. They went in through the roof access like they had the first time and slowly worked their way down through the floors. The top floors seemed more like management than anything else, and definitely not what they were looking for. The further down they went, though, the more it looked like an actual workplace. Occasionally, they would pass empty rooms with large windows that looked as though they had once housed something living. Donatello said that maybe they had kept unusual animals, and Leonardo would definitely count as one.

As they moved further, the lights got dimmer and dimmer, until they were left in near darkness. It wasn’t like any of them minded, though. They were most comfortable in darkness with the way they lived their life. Eventually, they came across a large, brightly lit, open room with ceilings so high that they were almost surprised that this part of the building wasn’t taller than the rest.

In a few areas, creatures that looked like they were straight out of a horror movie stared at them and growled.

“Definitely keeping ‘unusual animals’,” Donatello breathed.

“This ain’t ‘unusual animals’, Don,” Raphael remarked, glaring back at something that held resemblance to a hydra, “This is full on mythical monsters an’ stuff. You think these are natural?”

Donatello went silent after that, and they continued to search, careful not to be seen by any humans or to set off an alarm.

There was nothing in the main building, and as they moved on to the others, they found less and less items of interest, and no Leonardo.

Raphael curled his hands into fists and let out a short breath. Nothing. They had failed. They had failed and he was probably dead or taken somewhere else and being experimented on or worse.

He wrinkled his beak in annoyance and shook his head. He needed to make sure that his younger brothers were safe for now, then he could worry about Leonardo later. Besides, the oldest was known to be notoriously hard to kill, and even harder to keep a grip on when taken. He would be fine, right?

Raising his hand in a signal he learned from many years of experience, Raphael led them outside.

%%%

Leonardo sighed and shifted in the hay again, as he had for the past seven minutes. He had thought that failing at that test in Chinatown was bad, but this? Getting sold to the highest bidder while acting like an animal? This was a new all time low for him.

Obviously he had fought back when they tried to move him, snapping at and hitting the handlers, but they only took that as a sign of stress and put a hood on him. As if not being able to see would calm him down. It only made him more nervous. He didn’t know where he was going, and while the van was much roomier than the cage, he still couldn’t get out or move far. There was a thin wall, he knew, towards his left (he crashed into it a while ago, not that he would tell anyone), and from the laughter that followed his bumping into it, he knew that there was somebody on the other side watching him. If it weren’t for them, he would have removed the hood long ago.

A couple more uneventful minutes passed where he only shifted around and tried to explore without prompting any more embarrassment than before. Then, he was spinning around and around with deafening crashes and some screams following. His adrenaline got going, and he was immediately on guard, ready to stand up and fight at any second. Leonardo was flipped onto his shell right before gunshots and yelling started up, but the gunshots stopped as suddenly as they had begun. He started wiggling onto his plastron, hands up to rip the hood off, but somebody kicked him, muttering something, then something hit his head, hard.

He writhed for a bit and let out a short cry of pain, before going still, completely unconscious.

Well, that struggle was a waste.

%%%

One of the next things he remembered was hearing somebody taking pictures of him. Oh, should he strike a pose? Maybe blink some sparkles at them if they really wanted-?

Right, not the time to make wry jokes.

The camera shutters stopped, replaced by low mutters about money and ransoms. How many people were going to try and use him for money and why?

Leonardo deadpanned and slowly shifted into standing, reaching out to try and test his surroundings, only to find out that he was in a cage that was smaller than before. He couldn’t even reach out without touching one of the bars, or turn in any direction. He was just supposed to stand or lay there. Fantastic. What a wonderful day he was having. In the background, he heard the phone ring a few times and people talking. He tried not to listen in, though, knowing full well what that conversation was about. Instead, he focused on how he planned to get out of this when he couldn’t even move.

Laying down, he caught the words “new toy” from the ransomer and the person who bought him, and just settled for pretending that he didn’t, especially when the dial tone came along.

“Well,” The ransomer hummed, and Leonardo stilled, “I guess we have a new subject, 131.”