Chapter Text
The lights were changed back to the normal ones so he could see the rest of the room better. He already missed the lanterns. He sat back on the chair and scooted over to the second half of the table.
“And here we have the computer!” Don proudly announced. This was clearly his favorite part of the entire room. “I’ll definitely show you more how to use it in detail. Right now it doesn’t have a very safe password, and you’ll definitely need one.” He stated. “Not for us, mind you.” He quickly added. “We wouldn’t snoop around unless it was a life or death situation. But it’s more in case someone outside gets ahold of our lair, we can’t risk info getting out.”
Adam nodded. He’d try to find something or other.
“But with this baby, you’ll be able to do research on your own, note down signs and add them to the system, there’s a grammar and spelling mistake checker that will tell you if you misspell something, you can even scan and print things with this printer over here, though I would go easy on the printing part since finding ink is always a bit of a challenge.” Don excitedly enumerated.
His enthusiasm was hard not to share.
“I could even show you how to help me with some of my research. I mean if you want to.” He quickly added. “And you could note down parts you need us to keep an eye on at the junkyard. Actually, now that I think about it, you’d probably like to come with us one of these days.” Don suggested. “There’s a guy named the professor you would really like. He’s a human, but he lives in a small community of homeless people. They’re people who don’t have homes. They live at the junkyard. We’ll often give them things like old blankets that we found or food whenever we go, and the professor and his group will keep an eye on things like comics for Mike and stuff like that. The professor is also a huge fan of space and stars. He is obsessed with the big bang and the creation of the universe. I’m sure you’d love hearing him talk about it.”
The universe was created?
That almost sounded interesting… But again, outdoor, humans, surface…
He wasn’t sure.
“You don’t have to say yes now. You can think about it. It was just a suggestion.” Don reassured. “Anyway, if we don’t want this tour to continue on forever, I suggest tabling this conversation for another day.”
“Is it finally my turn?” Mickey asked hopefully.
“It sure seems that way.” Don confirmed with a nod.
“ Yes! ” Mickey whooped. “Okay okay, so this is the reading corner.” He pointed at the tall bookshelf, the bottom part inaccessible since the bed went flush to it.
On the first bottom shelf were things like a water bottle he’d never seen, some tissues, and other items for sleeping.
“There aren't that many books yet but you have that box you’ll be able to add.” Mickey continued. “I’ll let you set it up the way you want it. As much as I would’ve liked you going on a treasure hunt across your new room, we didn’t want you to feel like you were stuck with a design with no way to change it.”
“Mickey’s right.” Don agreed. “Although he and I designed the room, you can change whatever you want in it. It’s yours after all. Oh and Ellie’s, obviously.”
“Yeah! You could even move the furniture if you want to.” Mickey added. “Or repaint the room.”
Why would he want to do any of that? The room was perfect. Just perfect. He loved it. Every single detail. It was already so alive in it even before he used it. It was perfect.
“Oh man, it was such a pain to paint it in secret.” Mickey continued. “Not the painting part, we didn’t mind it. Don’t go getting ideas that we hated doing any of that. We loved it! But it was just that you have such a good sense of smell, and paint smells so strongly, we just knew you’d smell it.”
Don nodded. “We had to paint it mostly at night, when you’d be sleeping, and then add a smell remover in the room. It made the paint take longer to dry, we got kind of scared we wouldn’t be able to finish on time.”
“But don’t worry!” Mickey quickly reassured. “We totally did! As you can see.”
Adam nodded. It was. He loved it.
He looked at the books on the bookshelf. As he thought, most of them were manuals he’d seen in Don’s lab. Don quickly reassured that those were spares and he knew their content by heart now. He figured Don could always come and check them if ever needed.
Some books he’d never seen, so he picked them up. They looked like small novels, different styles and thickness.
“These were a few novels from my collection.” Leo said. “They might not be your style, but I was going to get rid of them regardless to make space for new ones. So feel free to read them or toss them as you see fit.”
Oh he would definitely at least try them. If anything, it would give him reading practice. He replaced the books with another mental note to look at them in more detail later.
At this point, he should just make a mental note of, as Mickey put it earlier, ‘ go on a treasure hunt in his own room ’ later.
His own.
He spotted some much bigger books and pulled them out. There were three of them, binders he now saw. Two had very pretty designs on them, one saying ‘ Baby Album ’ and the other simply saying ‘ Photo Album ’. The baby one was pastel green with stickers of turtles and baby items while the other had a collection of cars, food and star stickers on a dark navy background. The third binder was blank and completely yellow.
“Photo albums!” Mickey nearly shouted. Adam cringed at the volume. “Sorry.” Mickey almost whispered.
Adam looked at him and back at the binders.
“Okay, so! This is again just a suggestion, but you liked looking at my photo album, so I thought you might like doing your own.” Mickey explained. “I took a few photos today I can give you, but you’ll have to take the others. The idea is that you print photos of just about anything you want to remember and place them in this one.” He showed the navy one. “Your bike, food you made, some moments spent with us… whatever. But I also thought you might like to have one specifically for Ellie.” He then pointed at the pastel green one. “You could put photos of her doing things throughout her life. And once she's old enough for it, she could review them and see how she was as a baby.”
Oh, he liked that. But he wasn’t sure he would ever think about taking the photos.
“I could help you with designing the insides if you want.” Mickey continued. “I still have a bunch of stickers we could put in them depending on the photos you get.”
He nodded at him. He liked that even more.
“I had an extra binder so I placed it there.” Mickey added. “Figured you might have another occasion to use it. Maybe photos of a particular theme, or your papers for blueprints and ideas… whatever you want. It’s yours.”
He replaced the binders and made sure to thank Mickey. He looked at the rest of the otherwise empty bookshelf. He couldn’t wait to fill it. And then use it.
Looking up, he noticed a much larger shelf near the top. It was at least twice as large as the ones on the opposite wall, and it was too high to put anything on it. There were a few more lanterns near it, and it was solidly supported by some diagonal pillars, but it looked otherwise empty. Just large, across almost the entire wall, stopping just a dozen or so feet from the door, but empty. He pointed to it.
“We’ll let you check that one out later.” Mickey shrugged. “There isn’t anything on it. It’s just an alleyway, you know, like an escape route or a place to hide. Don and I figured you might like having a place like that, and you were apparently one shell of a monkey in LH’s lair, reminded me of Klunk’s tree dweller attitude of always wanting to look at the world from above.”
“So ya added that ‘cause of a cat?” Raph asked skeptically.
“Hey, it wasn’t like the space was used.” Mickey argued. “His room’s a bit smaller than ours, we wanted to optimize it.”
“ Is fine. Like it .” Adam signed.
“See?” Mickey replied. Raph grumbled.
Adam made a mental note to look up during his treasure hunt.
And thus it was finally time for the bed. Or rather, the two beds. The normal floor one, and the suspended one above. He pointed at the top one.
“So, we didn’t know if you actually preferred a bed or a hammock.” Don explained. “That was the one thing we didn’t really have the time to figure out before making this.” He gestured vaguely at the room.
“So we made both!” Mickey finished for him.
“Since you like company, especially at night, we thought it wouldn’t be a bad idea in general.” Don continued. “You can push the hammock away by the way, so you can see… well, the ceiling.”
“Now even Raph will be able to sleep over with you.” Mickey said. “And he won’t even have to touch you. Since he’s allergic to people .” He finished sassily. Raph tried to slap him but Mickey dodged easily. “It’s okay, I know you’re still a big softie on the inside.” He poked Raph’s stomach, making him growl and push away his hands. “Don’t deny it, the Klunk plushie is the proof!” Mickey continued. “As is this…” He pointed down at the bed.
Adam looked at what he was pointing at. It was actually one of the blankets, the top one in fact. He hadn’t realized that one was made of a similar fabric as the cat plush. It was in a pattern going from black to navy, to green, to light yellow and then back to black. He passed his fingers over it. It was quite soft, not as much as the plush, but it was thicker and looked warmer. He already liked it.
He looked at Raph with an appreciative expression. He signed his gratitude before looking at the rest of the blankets, just in case. They were normal ones, so were the pillows, but that was just as well. He did note there were quite a lot of them however. He was glad, now that he didn’t have fever, he was actually quite the type to get cold easily when sleeping.
He returned to the hammock. One of the cushions in it had a cute little turtle design. He picked it up.
“We wanted to put that one in the crib but the design was too feeble. It was too risky for her to tear some and eat it.” Don explained.
“It was also kind of big…” Mickey added. “But it fits perfectly in the hammock!”
Adam nodded. It did. Added a little life to it.
As he passed his hands across the different pillows, his fingers brushed over something more solid. He frowned and reached for it. The others behind him shifted.
The item was a small box, wrapped in a black and white design, not unlike those singular lanterns in each corner surrounded by the plant ones.
“Before you open this…” Leo said, placing a hand on his to stop his attempt. “...we have to tell you that this was from all of us. It took us quite a while to decide on it, and there’s a bit of a story behind it.” He let go of his hand.
Adam delicately removed the wrapper, pulling out an old but clearly important looking wooden box. It was thin but long, the wood used over the age making it even smoother to the touch. He slowly opened it.
Inside were two main items. He picked up the most obvious one. Just like the others wore, it was a mask, pure black of color and attentively sewed together. He placed it in one of his hands and picked up the second item. It looked like a much tinier mask, this one pure white, and void of eye holes.
“We didn’t know what color to give you at first. So I flat out asked you about it, remember?” Mickey asked carefully.
He nodded.
“You said that for clothes you liked it dark because it made it easier to hide.” Mickey continued. “And bright for decor so others couldn’t hide, which is why we made the walls these colors.”
He looked at the walls. Oh yeah. Clever. He totally forgot he’d said that, but it was true.
“It gave Leo an idea.” Mickey turned to him to continue.
“There is a concept in Chinese philosophy that states that no one can be entirely evil just as no one can be entirely pure. This concept is called Yin and Yang, two sides of a coin.” He pointed at the lone lanterns, specifically the symbol on them. “Am I correct in assuming you had never heard of it before?” He asked.
Adam shook his head. Something something Chinese was never going to be part of his knowledge.
“Throughout your time with us, you kept stating you were not good. You were created to be a machine, to be void of humanity and emotions in order to be the soldier Bishop wanted you to be.” Leo continued. “But, just like the black part of the symbol, no one is pure evil.” He showed on the gifts wrapping the white dot in the black portion. “There is good in you. Much bigger than this dot even. Good that is worth protecting. For all of us. And hopefully for yourself too.”
Leo turned around and picked Ellie up before returning to him. She was half asleep at this point and yawned in his arm, cooing lightly when noticing Adam.
“And in the contrary of yourself, you consider her the perfect individual, the one who would become better than you in every way.” Leo showed the baby in his arms. “But no one is perfectly good either.” He pointed at the black spot in the white of the wrapping. “We wanted to give you the white and her the black, but since you have a clear preference for black, I think it can still suit. Maybe not for her as much, but let your mask be the black part of your otherwise white heart.”
He looked back at the masks and the wrappings. Maybe he had been a tad harsh on himself. The others had clearly cared about him enough to do all this. Not just making it, which would already have taken weeks of building plus finding the materials, but also just… the designing, the info gathering. They spent a lot of time searching and noting down his own preferences. For him.
His hands started shaking. New tears fell from his eyes, but he didn’t bother clearing them. He bit on his lip to stop it from shaking. Leo kneeled in front of him, the others sitting on the bed or slouching on the wall in Raph’s case.
Staring at the dark mask in his hands, he nodded.
Shell he loved them all so much!
They always knew exactly what to say, what to do. And when they didn’t, they would know how to fix badly started situations like no others. From the moment they’d seen him, they’d found a soul he hadn’t even known existed, and ripped it out into the open, nursing it and feeding it until he could become ‘ normal ’. Even if he still felt atrociously wrong. Maybe he was better than he’d thought.
Leo showed him Ellie before she could fall asleep.
“She’s a little bit too young for masks yet, so we instead made her a neck bandana.” He said.
That explained the lack of eyes on it.
Adam removed his tears before carefully placing it around her neck. The fabric was stretchy and soft, easy to put on with no risk of choking her. And she looked quite cute with it on.
“Aww.” Mickey cooed. “You should take a photo.” He suggested.
Right. Good idea.
Adam pulled out his phone and took a quick picture of her. He had to take a few because she kept blinking as he took it, but eventually he got one worth keeping.
“Just remember to remove the bandana during meals.” Mickey warned. “Otherwise it will go from white to spaghetti sauce real fast.”
Adam huffed. Considering the amount of food she always managed to get stuck on her after meals, probably a good idea, yes.
Leo took Ellie back. Adam gazed one last time at the mask that was to become his before taking a deep breath and putting it on. He felt as though this was high in symbolism. He wasn’t truly part of their family before taking on their signature style. Before having a room of his own, a proper place to call home.
Now, he was home.
With his entire family.
Not just with the under grown specimen he’d rescued just a few months ago who became his baby daughter. But with four other turtles as well, brothers or friends, he wasn’t sure, but it didn’t matter.
They were family.
He tied the last knot and reopened his eyes. The others nodded.
“Lookin’ good, Adam.” Raph grumbled.
“It suits you.” Don added.
“Guess you were right in liking black.” Mickey confirmed.
“Just don’t forget what I told you.” Leo told him.
He shook his head. Never. He’d keep the wrapping where he could see it. As a reminder.
Leo placed a hand on the wooden box.
“This box had been used by our father for years.” He explained. “He was the one making our masks all our lives. After his passing, we’d had to adapt and make our own, so we never bothered to use the box again. But today, it felt as though it was appropriate. Our father would’ve been proud to have you in our family. Just as much as he was proud of us, and would’ve been proud of Ellie. Never doubt that.”
Leo took the box, giving him Ellie instead. Adam gave him a gentle hug before taking her back.
“There’s just one last detail to show you.” Don said before Adam could leave the bed. “This was a bit of a last minute addition, but I think it was worth it. Lay down please.”
Adam gave him a questioning look but complied. After moving the wrapping out of the way, of course. They moved the hammock aside before Don walked up to the lightswitch and killed the lights. He then flipped another switch.
Adam stared at the ceiling, which was now covered in a beautiful nebula of bright stars and mystical clouds. The lights were precise and clear. It looked so much better than anything he’d seen in pictures and televisions. So much prettier.
“This was the main reason we painted the ceiling dark.” Don said. “Honestly, it worked so much better than we anticipated that I’m tempted to do the same with my room.”
“ U can come to mine anytime. ” Adam quickly typed to him.
“Of course. I’d like that.” Don replied.
Mickey laid down next to Adam. “Now do you get what we meant when we were saying our rooms were ours but not forbidden to others?” He asked.
Adam moved his eyes from the ceiling to stare at him. He nodded. Yeah, he guessed he knew the feeling now. He’d allow them in whenever they’d want to. He was certain.
The others ended up slowly leaving the room to give him some time to acclimate while he continued staring at the ceiling, Ellie sound asleep on his plastron.
He felt like crying again, but all his tears were dried by now. He didn’t remember ever crying of joy before that day.
He was starting to realize that maybe he hadn’t failed at his first mission in life after all. He’d simply been liberated from a life of misery. This world, here and now, was so much better than anything he ever could’ve dreamed of. He wouldn’t change it for anything anymore. Ever. It had been worth it.
