how to get very good at juggling

🌻 chapter 1 🌻

April receives a worrying number of text messages, makes a proposition, and gets in wa-a-ay over her head.

The Krang invasion put a lot of things into perspective for April. Well, it did for everyone, that was just how life-altering trauma went, it wasn't like April was special in that regard. Either way, there had been approximately ten minutes where April lived in a world where Leo was dead, where the kid who always kept bandaids in his pockets, the kid who spent days learning how to braid her hair despite having six fingers and no hair himself, the kid who had gotten steaming mad over a Twitter fight about Jupiter Jim: Planet of the Sharks literally last week was dead. He was dead and April was still here, listening to the deafening buzz of the static over her wrist comm. April and Splinter didn't say much to each other in those ten minutes, but it was as she sat there, clinging to Leo's dad as he cried, that she realized Leo would never get to meet her parents. 

The Hamatos shared everything with her. Splinter was basically her third parent and the boys were one of the few constant presences in her life. April had been fully adopted into their little clan and was even able to commune with the Hamato ancestral spirits. They had opened every aspect of their lives up to her, and she'd never introduced them to her parents.

And then Mikey did the impossible and brought Leo home. 

Leo was in rough shape, but ultimately would pull through thanks to Draxum's super-soldier mutagen, the Hidden City hospital, and his innate stubbornness. Even if things were shaping up about as well as they could, April knew that none of them had forgotten those ten minutes where Leo had been dead. Mikey had nerve damage so bad he couldn't hold a pencil some days, let alone draw a straight line. Donnie went non-verbal for almost two weeks, when he hadn't done that for more than twelve hours in years. Splinter was more involved in the boys' day-to-day lives than she had seen him ever, to the point where Dr. Delicate Touch slipped out and told him he needed to stop hovering. Raph… Raph was holding up okay, which meant April was keeping an extra close eye on him. The bigger they are, the harder they fall, and Raph certainly was the brother that was biggest. He'd keep it all bottled up until he cracked, and normally April would try to help him let it out before that happened, but she was barely hanging on herself. Gotta put your own mask on before you assist others and all. 

She didn't forget introducing the Hamatos to her parents. In fact, it was on the forefront of her mind all the time. But things just needed to calm down first. People needed to heal, Leo needed to at least learn to walk again, and April needed to get her parents warmed up to the idea that her longtime friends the Splintersons were not actually home-schooled kids that she met at an inter-school science fair, but mutants living in the sewers. And that she'd been regularly hanging out in the sewers since she was eight.

Honestly, she was off to a good start. Once she'd gotten home and confirmed that her apartment was intact and her mom and dad were okay, it was surprisingly easy to ask her mom if she could stay with the Splintersons for a few days. She told the truth, that Leo had gotten hurt real bad, and even if he was going to be okay, she wanted to be there to help. Classes were canceled for two weeks, so her mom sent her off with a veggie lasagna, a kiss for her, and a kiss for Leo. She'd hung out at the lair for five days, helping fix up what had been damaged in the attack, doing supply runs for the boys, taking Casey on short trips above ground. 

After five days though, April was tired, and she needed clean clothes, and she missed her mom very much, so she bid the Hamatos adieu. Donnie sent her updates on Leo at least once a day, Splinter had given her a call so he could thank her mom for the lasagna. Then her dad got home from his business trip in Chicago, and the classes started up again, and before she knew it, it had been a month since the invasion. She visited the lair at least once a week like normal, but she hadn't been spending multiple days there or anything. 

All this to say, April was kind of surprised when Donnie texted her.

Dorkello von Ryan 🪄

Do you think Casey could stay with your family?

uhhhhhh i mean

easier to explain than like. raph.

did sth happen?? is everyone ok?

Everyone is alright. I just don't think being here is good for Casey right now. 

The three dots indicating Donnie typing kept going for quite a while, occasionally pausing before starting right up again. April started pacing her room, trying to keep herself from just calling him. Donnie was fine about calling her, especially for conversations as serious as this, so there had to be a reason he wasn't right now. 

Mikey winked at him and he had a panic attack. Casey walked in on Leo doing PT the other week and just froze. We couldn't snap him out of it for 43 minutes. I offered him coffee yesterday morning and he started crying. It wasn't even good coffee, it was that Maxwell House garbage. He hasn't left the sewers at all since the last time you took him clothes shopping. Raph even asks if he wants to come with when he does his vigilante act with Cass and Casey keeps turning him down.

Also… Papa floated the idea past me. He says that Casey's human and he needs to at least give living like a human a shot. Cass agreed, and she's willing to let me use her as a grounding point for forging papers and whatnot for him. Papa doesn't want to spring this on him unless we definitely have some place for him to go.

The typing came to an end, and April stared at the screen, her thumbs hovering over the keyboard as she tried to think of a response. She was still thinking as another message appeared on screen.

dont think jr would b surprised if we kicked him 2 the curb. kids got abandonment issues out the wazoo i dont wanna spook him -L

look whos fingers are working again

dee tell ur bitch ass brother to text me back

anyway

my moms been actually using her office since her work kinda got hit by a helicopter (oops) but like. weve got an extra room technically and a pretty decent air mattress. let me float it past them. 

April locked her phone screen, shoving it in her back pocket before heading out into the living room. Even excluding all the alien-related trauma, her apartment had been kind of weird lately. Her mom was working from home now, which meant April was seeing a whole lot more of her, and her dad's job seemed to actually need him in New York for the first time like, ever. Mayhem was good company, sure, but he was a pretty recent addition to the O'Neil household. April had made friends with mutant turtles at age eight and had then managed to keep it a secret for the next ten years after all, and while she liked to think she could be pretty sneaky, even the sneakiest of eight year olds probably shouldn't be able to go play in the sewers without it being noticed. 

Her dad was sitting on the sofa where he had fallen asleep watching the news, which was still playing on the TV. They were still playing drone footage of the aftermath even a month later. April quickly averted her eyes from the TV, and stepped into the kitchen. Her mom was sitting at the kitchen table, chewing on the end of her pencil as she contemplated the crossword puzzle in front of her. She didn't look up at April, instead gesturing at her with her pencil. "April, please tell me you know what a four letter word for the edible part of a pomegranate is."

"Uh…seed?" 

Her mom sighed, setting the pencil down on the table. "Doesn't fit. I think the third letter is an I, but… I'll ask your father. Lemon chicken should be done in–" she paused, glancing at the oven display, "–six minutes."

Her brothers would probably tell anyone who asked that April O'Neil wasn't scared of anything, and for all extents and purposes they were right, but there was something about her mother knowing any truths about the Hamatos terrified her. "Cool, cool, uhh… Can I ask you something? It's kind of big," April asked, fidgeting where she stood. 

Her mom furrowed her brow and April found herself mentally pleading with Karai for help. "Of course you can, honey, you can always come to us," her mom said, as Karai sent her the spiritual vibe equivalent to a "hang in there!" cat poster.

That was a sweet sentiment, and April might have believed it if she had normal 18 year old problems. "I know, I know, it's uh…my friend Cass, her cousin, he's new to New York. He's kind of been through a lot, like a lot a lot. He's staying with the Splintersons right now,  'cuz Cass is only 19 and she's on her own and Splints says Casey needs an adult, but…" April trailed off, trying to think of a way to downplay Casey's...whole situation.

Her mom got a soft look on her face, getting up and walking around the table toward April. She opened her mouth, starting to say something, but quickly closed it and waited for April to continue. 

"During the Krang invasion, um, I was mostly with Sp– with Mr. Splinterson, so I didn't see it happen, but we think Casey blames himself a bit for Leo getting hurt. No one thinks it's his fault, Donnie and I have talked about it, but… Mr. Splinterson is really worried about Casey. I guess he's not coping super well. Cass and Donnie and Leo and him, they all think that maybe some distance would do Casey good, y'know? He's only 16, Mom."

April's mom didn't respond immediately, instead taking a moment to process the information with a serious look on her face. "...What does Casey think about all this?" she asked. 

"They haven't talked to him yet. Mr. Splinterson wanted to make sure he definitely had some place to go before they even ran it by him. Casey's a bit…skittish."

April's mom pressed her lips together, eyes flickering toward the oven as the timer started going off. "Let me talk to your dad about it, okay? But I think we'll be able to work something out, even if it's just Casey staying with us for a few months–"

All the tension immediately melted out of April's body, the pit in her stomach moving into her chest. She jumped forward, wrapping her mother up in a tight hug. "I promise, Momma, he's not any trouble or anything, and he's super polite and helpful, you guys won't regret it–!" she found herself babbling until her mom cut her off. 

"April, I gotta talk with your dad. He lives here too, y'know?" she chuckled, leaning out of the hug until April let her go. She walked around April, grabbing the hot pads and opening the oven to grab the pan inside. "Go wake him up, let him know it's dinnertime."

April had spent all of dinner staring expectantly at her mother. The meal continued on as normal, her dad prattling on about the latest office drama without seeming to notice the tension right in front of him. 

"–didn't even say anything to her! I don't know what he's thinking, sassing Jennifer like that. You remember Jen, right Auggie? She was at the Christmas party last year," he said. 

As April's mom opened her mouth to reply, April cleared her throat, making eye contact with her mom. 

"You need some more water?" her dad asked at the same time as her mom sighed, "Can't it wait until after dinner?"

Her dad finally seemed to notice that he was missing something, looking back and forth between the two. 

April sheepishly faced her mother, fidgeting in her chair. "I- Sorry, Mom, I'm just…just anxious about it."

"I know, baby," her mom said, looking at April's plate and grimacing. "Finish your chicken, and then go to your room so your dad and I can talk about it, how does that sound?"

April hurriedly nodded, shoveling what was left of her dinner into her mouth and scrambling to her feet. "Chew," her mother ordered, and April shifted her weight back and forth on her feet as she managed to chew and swallow the unmanageable amount of chicken. 

She ducked around the table, giving both her mom and dad kisses on the cheek. "I love you, remember I'm the favorite child!" she exclaimed before bounding off into her room and shutting the door behind her. 

Her cell phone buzzed– long, short, short– where it was sitting on her desk, a new notification from Donnie. She grabbed the phone and turned on the screen, seeing 5 unread texts from Donnie, which was worrisome; and 22 unread texts from Leo, which was not. The most recent message from Leo was "dudes havn a con pigeon will u txt hm back", which was presumably about Donnie, so she navigated to his messages first.

Dorkello von Ryan 🪄

April, have you spoken with your mother yet? I know you have that exam in your Nationalism and Ethnic Conflict course tomorrow morning but

Yikes. She did have that test tomorrow morning. 

— but this is quite important. I already hacked into Eastlaird's gradebook site, so it would be no trouble for me to boost your grade a little bit if you are worried about not having time to study. Please let me know. 

You know I dislike double texting, but Raph just woke Casey up from a nap and he is now…somewhere in the lair. I think he's in the ventilation system perhaps. I told Raph to let him sleep, but he's very concerned about getting more meat on his bones, which is fair. He is very under weight for his age and height. I believe that Casey was only woken up by others when something bad was about to happen, it triggered a panic response. Unclear if he's hiding in the air vents to feel safe or if he's embarrassed about his reaction. Likely a combination of both. 

Apologies for the triple text, but I wanted to notify you that we have located Casey. He did take to the vents like I thought. Michael wanted to go in to try and coax him out, but it's too tight of a squeeze, so Leo told him no. Personally, I think going in there would just make the situation worse, but this is not my area of expertise by any means. 

April, if your mother forbids Casey from moving into your home, perhaps she would consider Raphael? I can make a very persuasive PowerPoint. He is currently pacing around my lab. Obviously, he's very upset about scaring Casey, and I have told him that it is not his fault that Casey has been traumatized by an apocalyptic future and thus has a very complicated relationship with most things in life. He did not find that comforting. If he breaks something in here, I am going to box him up and leave him on your doorstep. 

Casey is out of the ventilation system and is currently snuggling with Leo and Mikey. He doesn't talk much about the world he came from, but have you noticed that he never talks about Raph? He occasionally talks about my future counterpart, but only from when he was a child. I think that sometimes he looks at the two of us specifically and just sees their ghosts. But you, Leo, and Mikey must have been with him until the very end. Sometimes he looks at the three of you like he's seeing your future selves, but it is different than how he looks at Raph and I. It's like he's…surprised by us, I suppose. I don't think it's helping. 

As April had been pouring through the back log of messages, a new one came through. 

April Elizabeth O'Neil, you know I have read receipts on. 

sorry don, can i call u? a lot to type

Yes, that's fine with me. 

April pressed the call button, flopping down on her bed as the phone rang once before Donnie picked up. "So?" he said, blatant impatience filling his voice.

"My mom and dad are talking about it right now. They've got me shut in my room though, since they can't say no to my face and all. And I'm sorry about not texting you back, no phones at dinner, you know the drill."

Donnie huffed, a puff of static coming over the line. "Yes, I'm aware of your mother's rule."

They sat in silence, April absentmindedly scratching at the fabric of her blanket. It wasn't exactly unusually for her and Donnie. Sometimes, especially when they were younger, more lonely, and more overwhelmed with the world, they'd taken to just having each other on the phone as background noise. It was a way to be together while still doing their own separate things, even on days when April had to stay home. 

"Is Casey alright?" she asked before she even realized the words were out of her mouth, wincing at the broken silence. 

Donnie hummed, probably thinking about how to answer. "I think so. Leo and Mikey are still with him. They'd tell me or Raph if something was wrong."

That was a fair point. She put Donnie on speaker phone as she started scrolling through her text messages from Leo, though they mostly consisted of variations of her name, curse words and short Casey updates from the vent saga, before the final plea to text Donnie back. 

"It'll be okay, Don, I'm pretty sure my parents will let him stay with us. Even if they say no, we'd just have to bring Casey around. Dude's got all the charm of a sopping wet dog, and I mean that in the best way. Maybe Hueso would have some ideas. He's not human, obvi, but he is, like, a human skeleton, sorta. Maybe he has human friends? Who are adults?" April tried, just spit balling ideas off her friend. 

"Maybe," Don said, sounding like he intended to say more. April let the silence sit, and after a bit he spoke up again. "It says something that the next adult I can think of to ask for help is Draxum."

"He does work with humans."

"He dropped Leo off a roof."

April snorted. "To be fair, you've also dropped Leo off a roof."

"It was only one story! I had him hooked to a bungee cord. You know this, you were there, he only screwed up his ankle a li–" There was a knock at the door and Donnie abruptly stopped talking, his anxiety palpable.

"April?" her mom's voice came through the door, and April leapt up, swinging the door open and facing her parents and bouncing on her heels where she stood. 

"Your mom told me about Casey's situation," her dad started. "It's good that the Splintersons are helping Cass and her cousin out like this. They need some adults to rely on, and if we can help lighten the load that Mr. Splinterson has taken on, we'd like to help. He's already got a lot on his plate."

Before April could say anything, her mother cut in. "But we want to make sure Casey's on board. So why don't you invite Mr. Splinterson and Casey over, maybe Cass too." A small puff of static came through her phone speakers from Donnie's audible surprise. "We're thinking, maybe Casey stays here for four months, and then he can re-evaluate if he wants to keep staying here, or if he wants to move back with the Splintersons. But we can talk about the details when they come over, okay?"

Oh, shit. Splinter was a rat. They wanted to talk to the other adult in the situation, who was a rat. The time line for Operation Parents Trap was suddenly being moved up much much sooner than April was comfortable with. She hadn't even breached the topic of mutants with them, let alone everything else! "Yeah, that sounds good," April agreed weakly. Her assent was quickly followed by an unholy screech from her phone speakers. 

"Are you kidding? You're going to introduce our father to your parents before us? That is so unfair! Pizza supreme, Mikey's gonna lose it. He called first dibs back when we were what, like eight? He never forgets a dibs. Never!" Donnie exclaimed over the phone, as April slowly started pressing the down volume button on the side of her phone, making sheepish eye contact with her parents. 

"Uh, so this is Donnie. Don, you're on speaker," April announced awkwardly, Donnie quickly cutting off his shouting. 

"Oh. I did not know that. Um… Salutations, Mr. and Mrs. O'Neil, my name is Donatello Hamato– er, well, Splinterson? Our father decided to get back in touch with his heritage last year. It's complicated. Uh, thank you for letting April hang out with us. She is a very good friend and um–"

"Shut up, Donnie," April hissed into the phone, giving her parents a weak smile. "...Uh, do you guys wanna meet Mikey tonight? I forgot he called dibs."

"Dibs are sacred," Donnie chimed in. 

"That sounds– Kirby, you didn't have any plans tonight, right? Okay, uh yeah, Mikey can come over," April's mother said, obviously thrown by Donnie's, well, Donnie. April was sure her obvious anxiety was not reassuring anyone either. 

Donnie whistled through the phone, apparently still getting over his surprise, before he hung up with a click. April looked down at the black screen of her phone, unlocking it and pressing the call button by Mikey's contact. 

"Hey–" April started, cutting off when Mikey immediately shushed her. There were the sounds of him rustling around, presumably extracting himself from whatever nap pile he, Leo, and Casey had formed. April pulled the phone away from her face, looking back toward her parents as they stared at her with apparent confusion. "...I interrupted nap time," she explained weakly. 

"You are so, so lucky you didn't wake Casey up," Mikey said at normal volume, evidently in some sort of safe zone. 

April held the phone back up to her ear. "Yeah, um, speaking of, sort of, my parents want to meet Casey and Splints–"

"But my dibs!" Mikey protested. 

"Yeah, Donnie said about your dibs. So, uh, do you wanna come over tonight?"

"Ohmigosh, really? Are you serious?! April, you gotta tell me if you're joking."

"Hundred percent serious, Mike."

"We're in business! Let me get ready, I'll be there in uhh…20 minutes! I love you, you're my favorite sibling, goodbyeeeee–" 

April hung up the phone, the black screen reflecting her face back at her. 

Her dad was the first to break the silence. "I'm glad your friends are excited to meet us finally but, um, what exactly was…" he trailed off, gesturing to April's phone in her hand. 

Hey, Karai, you wouldn't happen to have any ideas about how to have this conversation, would you? April prayed. 

"Hang in there!" cat poster. She was so screwed.