The Words That Hurt Me

Twenty-Twenty-Three

"Aaaand, there! That should do it, fire it up,"

Donny flicked a couple of switches, the central heating system firing up, this time with regular old orange fire. He closed the control panel door and wiped his forehead.

"It'll use a bit more fuel than the substance I synthesized, but that shouldn't be too much of an issue," Rockwell said, patting Leatherhead on the back. "And thank you for the help, Donatello,"

"Don't mention it," The turtle mumbled.

Leatherhead nodded at Rockwell, who floated out of the greenhouse. Donny watched them out of the corner of his eye.

"Say, Leatherhead, why did you want us to replace the fuel source for the greenhouse?" He turned towards the gator, "It's not like there was an issue with it,"

"There was an issue, Donatello," Leatherhead replied, "It bothered Michelangelo,"

"It did?" Donny asked quietly, glancing at the fire. Leatherhead nodded.

"It brought forth unpleasant memories," Leatherhead said hesitantly, "I don't want him to be uncomfortable in my home,"

"Uncomfortable at home?" Donny muttered to himself, "I...I see,"

.

"Wow, I can't believe you're both going back to New York!"

Mikey nodded, taking a big bite of his sandwich.

"Yeah, figured I wouldn't really have the chance otherwise," Goo supplied, feeding Lunito a spoonful of applesauce. "Going anywhere was always a pipe dream for me,"

"Hmm, I never thought about it before this happened," Usagi said, scooping up a glob of pudding, "I mean, I didn't really want to go anywhere, I just wanted to stay with my clan,"

Mikey hums, looking out across the courtyard. You really could forget that you're not outside while sitting in it. A couple of kids ran up, plopping down by Goo and the twins.

"Goober! You're leaving?"

Goo, rather than answering, reached over and grabbed a container from their bag. Mikey knew what was in the container, it was the m&m cookies that they asked him to make (without any of his special additions).

"Goo-ooo! Cookies!" Immediately, the children dug into the treats. There were three kids, Caleb, a human about eight years old, a harpy named Deja about six, and a little weasel named Charlie, around five years old.

Too young, Mikey thinks.

"I'm not leaving, dudes," Goo finally answers, "I'm just visiting New York with Mikey, I'll be back,"

The kids squirmed a bit. It was clear to see that the city made them uneasy, and this was not lost on Goo.

"I'll be alright, I've got a ninja watching my back,"

Charlie peered at Mikey from behind Caleb. He had always been shy, hiding from the two of them at first. Eventually, he warmed up enough to talk to them.

"Thanks for the cookies," Charlie said to him, barely above a whisper. How he knew, Mikey couldn't say, Goo hadn't said anything about that yet.

"No problemo, little dude,"

The kids scampered off after a while, of course taking a few cookies with them, leaving the group to their picnic like before.

Mikey was amazed by how quickly Goo seemed to befriend all the kids there. They all opened up them in one way or another, even getting Ms. Ramirez to entrust the twins to them. Goo says it's just their 'vibes' but Mikey would believe if it was witchcraft if they said so.