languajix

The final fill to get a bingo line! Inspiration struck for Rise of the TMNT for this one.

As a heads up, Rise is a pretty different take on TMNT canon, and the characters/personalities are a bit divergent from most other versions.

Bingo Card: Craft Bingo 2024
Prompt: Knitting

Fandom: Rise of the TMNT
Wordcount: 1,214
Summary: The Hamato family pays a visit to Baron Draxum's apartment for a special occasion.
Warnings: None
Notes: I don't think? We ever got a birthday or anything like that for Draxum? But if we did then no we didn't.



The menagerie outside Baron Draxum's apartment door was as unanticipated as it was unsurprising. He opened the door to a scrambling pile of limbs and scales. At least the turtles were wearing clothes today.

"Michelangelo."

"Happy birthday, Barry!" Michelangelo crooned with a sparkling smile, holding out a box. "This is from all of us to you."

Leonardo placed a hand on Michelangelo's head and used it to prop himself up so he was visible through the doorway. "From him, he means!"

"Especially from Leo," Michelangelo added firmly. "It's from all of us from the bottoms of our hearts, but especially Leo's." He ignored the sharp glare Leonardo gave him, and the way the splayed hand turned into knuckles sharply digging into his head, continuing to smile sweetly.

"I would like to be removed from the list as well. If we're able to opt out." That was Donatello's voice floating from somewhere out in the hallway.

Raphael, whose figure loomed large and shadowed in the hallway behind them, sighed. "C'mon, guys, you know the birthday rule. You gotta be nice to the birthday ki- uh, adult, or you have to endure..." his voice grew grave. "The freezer pipe."

What dramatics. (He couldn't ignore the fondness welling up in his chest. He could never have imagined, even a mere year ago, how much he could change, by knowing these children. He still found them annoying, but every twinge of annoyance was equally matched by a twang of endearment.)

Draxum raised an eyebrow. "I think you're all mistaken. It's not my birthday, as I told-"

"-and I told you that I was going to pick a day, and I have!" Michelangelo insisted. "Today is the day, two and a half years ago, that we met you, and our lives changed forever!"

"Technically-" Draxum and Donatello both began, a flat stereo from either side of the doorway.

"Noooooo technicallys, Donald! Not today!" Michelangelo skipped into the apartment, leaving Leonardo to nearly fall flat on his face. Raphael gently herded the remaining members of his family inside, including Splinter, who kept stealing glances at him but seemed otherwise comfortable entering Draxum's space.

"Wait," April O'Neil said, "if it's not his birthday, then why did I have to reschedule my study date with Sunita? I even dressed up for this." She pointed to the bow in her hair, which if Draxum was not mistaken was likely the single concession she'd made to dressing up for any occasion meant to celebrate him.

Considering the first time they'd met, she'd tried to introduce him to the business end of her baseball bat, the progress was actually quite touching.

"Because he's old-"

"-old as ba-mmmmph," Leonardo attempted to interject before Raphael grabbed him in a headlock that smothered his words against Raphael's forearm.

"-and he hasn't celebrated his birthday in hundreds of years, he doesn't remember the date! So, of course, I had to pick, and I wanted to pick something meaningful so he'd never forget ever again. But he said he remembered it being in the fall, but he was in the other hemisphere at the time so it's actually in the spring..."

"I did not help him with that," Donatello announced, one finger in the air. If Draxum was not mistaken, that was the slightest hint of a proud smile on his face, which for Donatello meant he was actually beaming inside.

"But we met Mayhem and fell into the Hidden City in the fall, so I decided the half year anniversary would do perfectly!" With that, Michelangelo sucked in a long, deep breath. Then he threw his hands out wide, the box still clutched in one. "So here we are!"

He spun around on his heel so he was facing Draxum once more. "Anyways, happy birthday, Barry!"

Baron Draxum accepted the gift hesitantly. He wanted to continue to protest, but refusing a present simply wasn't polite. "Thank you, Michelangelo."

At Michelangelo's prompting expression, the raised brows and the pointed glances and the head tilt, which were quite unsubtle, he amended: "Thank you, Hamato family."

Michelangelo draped himself over Draxum's shoulder. "You're welcome, Barry."

Draxum ran his claws over the wrapping paper, slicing it neatly so it fell off the box in two equal pieces. He wasn't doing it to impress anyone, but Raphael and April clapped politely. Leonardo rolled his eyes from where he was still struggling to escape the headlock.

When the flaps of the box revealed something obviously soft, saturated with color, he made sure to handle it with the pads of his fingers just in case. He pulled out a length of knitted wool yarn: a scarf.

A scarf with brilliant blue, vibrant red, fiery orange, and proud purple. Green, for Splinter, and yellow for April. It was messy and loud and fit them all perfectly. He touched the black stripe, curious.

"That's Casey." When Draxum only blinked, Michelangelo tilted his head. "Foot Recruit? She couldn't make it today because they're waging territory wars with the cookie cadets."

Ah, yes.

The last color, though, stumped him. Magenta. He stared at it, searching his mind for who else was missing from their little family, because it couldn't possibly be...

"That's you, Barry," Michelangelo said, quiet and sugar-sweet. "The color of your vines, because, because you don't have ninpō, but you have those, so I thought-"

Baron Draxum found himself blinking fast, smothering tears prompted by a terribly unfamiliar emotion.

April sighed, taking half a step forward. She placed a hand lightly on his wrist. "Listen, Barry, I know we got off on the wrong foot,"

"Understatement," Leonardo said from where he'd finally wrestled himself free of Raphael's iron grip. He mimed something with his fingers that was either a very strange hand cramp or someone falling off of a building.

"But," she continued, glancing at Leonardo with a firm look, "we trust that you've changed. We've all changed. And we're really proud of you for that! You're now, like, ninety-five percent less evil. Which is better than Donnie, most days! And take it from me, it doesn't matter if you were born into it or if you choose each other, you're a Hamato for life."

Draxum saw Donatello, standing beside her, nod once and then look away as though pretending he hadn't done it at all.

Raphael smiled, just a tad uncertain but welcoming nevertheless.

Splinter broke out into his own awkward, lopsided grin, eyes soft. It seemed like forgiveness, if Draxum could possibly presume such a thing after everything he'd done to this man in particular.

Michelangelo cupped a hand and whispered in his ear: "I wouldn't have made it if everyone hadn't agreed, by the way."

Draxum snuck a quick glance at Leonardo. The boy had his arms folded and a surly expression on his face, but as Raphael reached over and poked him on the head, shoulders, biceps, anywhere he could reach, eventually Leonardo broke out into a reluctant grin and started slapping him back.

In some ways, Leonardo was the family's toughest defender. If Draxum had somehow managed to breach those iron walls, he would not let that trust be in vain.

The scarf was warm.

The feeling of belonging somewhere, in a way he hadn't for a long, long time, was even warmer.