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Then came the day he was invited to the estate of the Hamato Clan, and his entire life turned upside down.", "count": "16", "submission_left_submission_id": "2261714", "submission_left_file_name": "3289697_Sundayeyes_bell_flowers_15.doc" } ], "description": "Michelangelo had never been known to stay in one place for very long. Taverns and street corners were his hearth and home, because roots can?t take hold if you just keep moving, and why would anyone want to sink into the ground so deep that you got stuck?\n\nThey were smart words to live by and had done a good job of keeping him happy enough. At least until the day he was invited to the sprawling estate of the Hamato Clan, and his entire life was turned upside down.\n\nAlternate Universe, AU\nPairings: Leonardo/Michelangelo, Raphael/Donatello\n\n~*~*~*~\n[url=https://inkbunny.net/s/2261714]<--- Chapter Fifteen[/url]\n~*~*~*~\nRead the Sequel - Life Among the Bell Flowers [url=https://inkbunny.net/s/2921037]HERE![/url]\n~*~\n\nArt for this chapter created by [iconname]anomalae[/iconname]! Thank you for such a lovely gift! I love it more than I can ever say! <3\nYou can see [url=https://inkbunny.net/s/2381629]the full sized version here[/url]!\n", "description_bbcode_parsed": "Michelangelo had never been known to stay in one place for very long. Taverns and street corners were his hearth and home, because roots can?t take hold if you just keep moving, and why would anyone want to sink into the ground so deep that you got stuck?

They were smart words to live by and had done a good job of keeping him happy enough. At least until the day he was invited to the sprawling estate of the Hamato Clan, and his entire life was turned upside down.

Alternate Universe, AU
Pairings: Leonardo/Michelangelo, Raphael/Donatello

~*~*~*~
<--- Chapter Fifteen
~*~*~*~
Read the Sequel - Life Among the Bell Flowers HERE!
~*~

Art for this chapter created by \r\n\t\t\t\t\t\r\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\r\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\r\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\r\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\r\n\t\t\t\t\t\t
\r\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t
\r\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tanomalae\r\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t
\r\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t		\r\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tanomalae\r\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t
! Thank you for such a lovely gift! I love it more than I can ever say! <3
You can see the full sized version here!
", "writing": "[center]~*~*~*~\n\nChapter Sixteen: Never Ever Getting Rid of Me\n\n~*~*~*~[/center]\n\n[center]~*~ [b]6 Months Later[/b] ~*~[/center]\n\nOnce upon a time there was a young turtle that lived on a farm. His favorite thing in the whole wide world was sitting on his grandmother's knee while she sang him a song. He was too young to understand the words, but that was alright, because he was happy when she sang to him, and that was the only thing that mattered.\n\nThen one day his grandmother was gone. They wouldn't tell him where she went, not his mama or his papa, they just told him to stop crying and do his chores. After that he wasn't happy anymore.\n\nAs the days turned into weeks turned into months turned into years, he began to believe that he would never be happy again. But he never forgot the song she would sing to him, and during his lowest moments, on his darkest days, he would sing her song quietly to himself and he would remember, if only for a moment, what it was like to feel happy.\n\nNow, so many years later, he had finally learned what it was to be genuinely happy. He knew love and he knew joy; he had a family that was his very own. Not the one he was born into, but the one he chose. And because of that his grandmother's song had taken on a different meaning. He no longer sang it to feel happiness for himself, he no longer needed to, now he sang it to teach others how to find their own happiness.\n\nThe children were still learning how to hold the strings to make all the different notes, but they knew the words and the melody, and they would sing until the walls of the schoolhouse shook with their joy.\n\nLeonardo had given him the one-room cottage that sat near the village square and helped him fill it with every instrument there was, even the ones he didn't know how to play. But he was learning. Donatello brought in books for him from every corner of the world with instructions on how each instrument worked, and he would sit for hours, refusing to turn a page until he perfected each technique. And every morning, with the children gathered around him, he would show them what he had learned. And the joy of their song could be heard in every corner of the estate.\n\nBut on this day the hour was late, so the children weren't with him. The village was quiet and the light from the setting sun stretched long across the floor of his schoolhouse as he sat alone, strumming the strings of his precious guitar, lost in the melody he was creating. Maybe he would remember to write it down tomorrow if he could remember the notes.\n\nA shadow fell on the stone at his feet, blocking the light. Lifting his gaze, he found his friend smiling down at him, quiet as the final notes drifted through the air between them.\n\n\"It's time.'' Donatello said after the music faded away.\n\nDrawing a deep breath Michelangelo stood, carefully placing his instrument back into its case. He turned to see Don had stepped closer, his presence a calming balm on the nerves that were starting to shiver in his chest.\n\n\"How do I look?'' Mikey asked, holding out his arms and spinning once to try and hide the tremor in his voice.\n\nDon chuckled, reaching out to pull on Mikey's tunic. \"Well, I think you would look better if you would ever take the time to fasten your toggles correctly.''\n\nMikey smirked, looking down at Don's fingers as his friend fixed where he had looped a toggle through the wrong fastening, his gaze lingered on the expanse of orange silk decorated by delicately embroidered brilliantly blue bell flowers cascading across his shoulders and down his arms.\n\nIt was true he hadn't paid much attention as he was dressing earlier, his thoughts were bouncing around too frantically in his head for that, making it difficult to focus on anything, least of all his shirt. That's why he was hiding in his schoolhouse. Well, not hiding, that wasn't what he did anymore, but sometimes he still needed a few minutes alone with his guitar, just to calm his mind when things got too complicated.\n\nHe wasn't scared. He wanted this night more than he'd ever wanted anything in his life. But old habits were hard to break, all the same. When he'd said he needed some air, Leo understood, pushing him out the door as he smiled and kissed his forehead and told him not to be late. And Don had only come looking for him because he knew how lost in the music Mikey could get.\n\nSometimes he wondered if they knew him better than he knew himself.\n\n\"Nervous?'' Don asked, smoothing the wrinkles in the orange silk.\n\n\"This isn't going to be the same as yours, is it?'' Mikey asked after a pause.\n\nDon tilted his head with an amused smile as he considered the question before replying. \"Not... quite the same. The council is here for one... and there will be fireworks after. But you're not really going to be in a position to notice any of those things anyway.''\n\nMikey's eyes widened, swallowing through the realization of what his friend was implying. \"Donnie, please don't let me do anything... embarrassing... in front of the council.''\n\nDon's hearty laugh filled the cottage as he took Mikey's arm, draping it through his own. They left the schoolhouse and the village square behind, walking the main road back to the estate at a leisurely pace.\n\nVillagers on their way home from their daily work stopped to bow and give their well wishes to Michelangelo. They all addressed Donatello as a lord now, which would never not be weird, and even though Don said he was starting to get used to it, Mikey didn't really believe him.\n\nAs they walked Don stretched a little, rubbing the edge of his plastron with a grimace. His wound was completely healed, there was hardly even a scar where the dagger had pierced his side. But after his battle with Hun's general, he always seemed to favor the area of his injury when the weather turned foul. Mikey looked back over his shoulder and, sure enough, dark clouds on the horizon looked like they would threaten rain tomorrow.\n\nWhen they passed through the gates Mikey saw Raphael waiting for them at the bottom of the stairs leading up to the main hall. Dressed in his finest, he was leaning against a stone column, twirling one of his weapons around his fingers. He stopped and hooked it through his belt as they approached.\n\n\"Bout' time.'' He grumbled. ``Everyone's waitin'.''\n\n\"We aren't late.'' Don said, stepping close to his mate.\n\nRaph reached out and grabbed Don's hand, \"I see ya' even cleaned the grease out from under your fingernails.''\n\nDon smirked at the tease. \"Don't you start. I wasn't even in my workshop today.''\n\nMikey tried not to laugh. As soon as Don was out of danger and on the mend, Raphael had spent an entire week from dawn to dusk building a workshop for him behind the blacksmith?s barn. Mikey had helped where he could with Leo pitching in as well, so by the time Don could walk on his own again it was ready.\n\nWhen they presented it to him, the former steward was so surprised he could barely form words, and for every day since he'd spent almost all of his time shut up inside it, working on one project or another. It was usually a battle to pull him out of there, even for meals, and his skin was always smudged with dirt and grease. Raph would tease him about it, but in an affectionate way that always had Don giving in rather than working until the sun began to rise.\n\nAs often happened when the two were together, Raph and Don became distracted by each other, momentarily forgetting where they were and what they were supposed to be doing, losing themselves in each other's eyes and whispering as they bent their heads close together.\n\nMikey shuffled from foot to foot, giving them a moment as he eyed the doors to the main hall. They were wide open, and he could hear the low rumble of quiet conversation from the room beyond.\n\nDon had asked him if he was nervous, and he supposed he was a little, but not as much as he thought he would be. Leonardo was in there, waiting for him, and that thought brought a warmth to his cheeks that had nothing to do with nerves.\n\nHe jumped as a hand came to rest at his elbow and he turned to find Don watching him with a knowing smile.\n\n\"I think I'll go see how Leo is doing.'' He said with a playful wink before he disappeared up the stairs.\n\nRaph came over and turned him by the shoulders, waiting until he was sure he had Mikey's full attention. \"Ya' know how different this is gonna be for ya', right?''\n\n\"I have a pretty good idea...'' Mikey admitted.\n\n\"And I don't mean just because of who's in there.'' Raph insisted, gesturing at the hall. \"Leo's the heir, and someday he'll be the leader of this clan. There're gonna be expectations on you that not even [i]I[/i] have to deal with.''\n\nMikey took a deep breath and released it slowly. He knew all this already; Leo had explained it. But the fact that Raph was here, taking the time to tell him as well, to help him prepare for what was coming, meant so much. It showed how much he really cared.\n\n\"You'll represent the family, but more importantly you'll represent [i]him[/i], and the image he has to uphold.'' Raph continued. \"You may even be called on to stand in for him in certain situations. Usually that'll only be if I'm not available, but still. Are ya' sure you're ready to take on that responsibility?''\n\nMikey sighed. \"I won't pretend like I even really understand what any of that means. At this point it seems like it's all just stuff I'll need to figure out as I go. But I'm ready. I'll do anything he asks of me because I love him, and I'll happily do whatever it takes to be with him.''\n\nRaphael gazed at him solemnly for a full minute, staring deeply into his eyes, judging the truth of his words through the set of his shoulders and the steadiness of his breath. When he didn't flinch, Raph graced him with a rare warm smile.\n\n\"Go on then, he's waitin' for ya'.'' Raph said\n\nBolstered and relieved and so much more than just ready, Mikey turned to the hall, lifting his foot to the first stair, jerking in surprise when he was suddenly stopped by Raph's hand on his arm.\n\n\"Keep your eyes on Leo.'' The second son said. \"He's the only one in that room that matters right now.''\n\nMikey nodded, smiling gratefully before turning back to ascend the stairs, Raph falling in behind him as he climbed. When he reached the open doorway, he stopped and stared.\n\nThe hall was aglow with light. Hundreds of lanterns hung from every beam, candles adorned every surface. Swathes of silk in orange and blue, bearing the bell flower in glittering thread, fluttered from the rafters.\n\nA sea of faces filled every corner seated at small round tables. Nobility from every province across the Hamato lands sat in conversation, dressed in all the finery of their stations, sipping wine from golden cups. At the far end of the room the dais had been expanded to hold a long table with enough room to seat the entire council, ten clan leaders in all, including Lord Hamato himself at the center.\n\nMikey swallowed, this wasn't the intimate warmth of the waterfall grotto, with sparkling lights and the friendly faces of the serving staff bringing a familiar feel of normalcy to the gathering. This was a room filled to the brim with wealth and power, he could see it on their haughty faces and in the way they held themselves. They had come to the estate not to see Lord Hamato or Leonardo or even the ceremony itself. They had only come to be seen themselves, to have the distinction of being able to say they were here to witness this night.\n\nThese nobles lived in a world so far removed from everything he had ever known, and seeing their self-importance so blatantly on view, made him hesitate.\n\nNot even one of them seemed to notice his arrival.\n\n[i]And why would they?[/i] He thought with a momentary chill. He was a peasant, little more than dirt scraped off the bottom of a shoe standing among them like he belonged. He had never felt so out of place surrounded by so many people.\n\nIt might have even been enough to weaken his resolve, but then he looked up, to the end of the aisle extending straight out in front of him, and there was Leo, beautiful in blue with soft sapphire fabric framing his shining eyes, beaming at him like he was a perfect diamond in a room full of coal.\n\nMichelangelo's smile widened as courage filled him. Raphael was right. Let these nobles preen their feathers if it makes them feel better. Right now, Leonardo was the only one in this entire massive hall that mattered.\n\nHe felt Raph's hand come to rest on his shell, giving him a gentle push, so he took a deep breath and with his head held high, stepped into the room.\n\nThey walked down the center aisle together, Raph just a step behind him, the comforting weight of his hand remaining on his carapace. They were halfway across the hall before the conversation surrounding him changed. It grew quiet, he heard their whispers, saw their stares out of the corners of his eyes. They saw him, confidently wearing Leonardo's symbol like he was one of them... and they laughed.\n\nHis step faltered hearing their snickers, seeing the way their heads bent together as they watched him approach the dais. His age-old instinct to flee bunched in his muscles and he clenched his fists. Then he heard Raph snarl low, discrete in his warning but clear enough that the surrounding nobles quickly contained themselves, drawing back their shoulders and pursing their lips at the offense of being so scolded by Lord Hamato's second son.\n\nBut it was exactly the support he needed. Knowing that Raph was protecting him, kept his feet moving forward, kept his eyes locked on Leonardo waiting for him at the end of the room.\n\n[i]They don't matter...[/i] He repeated the thought in his head and was surprised to find it wasn't hard to truly convince himself of it. Leo didn't see him as a peasant. Leo had always treated him like they were equals, had never once made him feel like he was lower than him. It was part of why he had fallen so hard and so easily for the eldest son. Leo had accepted him for who he was from the moment their eyes had met.\n\nThey were in this together and they always would be.\n\nDon was standing with Leo, smiling warmly as they all finally came together at the end of the aisle. Raph said something to his brother, but Mikey failed to hear it, the stress of the long walk had filled his ears with a low buzzing sound. He blinked as the second son gave his shoulder a heavy pat and he stepped away, taking Don with him to a nearby table.\n\nThen Leo took his hand and suddenly the room may as well have been empty. His vision focused and the noise in his ears cleared. With all his senses centered on his mate he squeezed Leo's fingers.\n\n\"Hi.'' He whispered.\n\n\"Hey.'' Leo whispered back. \"Ready?''\n\nMikey nodded and Leo pulled him down to kneel on plush cushions positioned in front of the dais where a priest patiently waited. Silence settled over the hall.\n\nA week ago, Don had sat down with him and tried to explain what was about to happen. But nothing his friend had said during that conversation could have ever prepared him for the reality of his own bonding ceremony.\n\nAs soon as the priest started chanting his body went completely numb, like he was floating above the floor. All he could hear was his own heartbeat, all he could feel was Leo's hands clutching his, all he could smell was candle wax and jasmine and the musk of smoky incense, all he could see was Leo's gentle hazel gaze drinking him in.\n\nLeo grinned sideways, trying not to laugh, and Mikey had no idea what was so funny, but he found himself biting his lip, suppressing the giggle threatening to burst past his lips.\n\nSomehow his brain registered the priest asking for their consent and he gave it simultaneously with Leo, enthusiastically smiling wide as the priest lowered the lanterns and lifted their ribbon.\n\nLines of orange and blue swam in his vision and he thought his fingers might fall off from how tightly Leo was holding his hands. When the priest laid the ribbon on his skin he jumped, startled by how cold and slick it was.\n\nThe tightness that enveloped them as the length wrapped around their wrists and up their arms, twisting and folding until they were encased together in the soft silk, was the strangest feeling. He honestly couldn't tell if he loved it or hated it. Maybe it was a mix of both.\n\nHis shoulders shook with an emotion that didn't have a name as tears he couldn't have held back even if he had wanted to escaped to roll down his cheeks. He looked up to find Leo's mask wet with his own tears, not caring or at all bothered by who was watching, who would see.\n\nThe light of a flame filled his vision as the priest lifted the candle between them, the next part of his speech nothing but a low murmur in his ears. He trembled as the flame lowered to rest against the silk covering his wrist.\n\nThe oil-soaked ribbon easily caught and Mikey released a shuddering breath. It was warm and comforting, his hands and arms tingling where the blue fire slowly spread between them. It was nothing more than a gentle tickle, like a feather dragging lightly across his skin. He could feel the tremors from Leo's fingers and squeezed him tighter, pulling gently at his hands.\n\nHe watched the ashy ribbon disintegrate and flake away, drifting down into the bowls beneath them. Through his tears the blue and orange lines left behind to swirl on his skin seemed to glow in the candlelight. He couldn't take his eyes off them.\n\nThe droning voice of the priest came to him again, like he was hearing it from underwater, a pulsing hum as he chanted. Then a bowl appeared under his nose, the sharp earthy scent of wine filling his nostrils. He tore his eyes up to look and he could see the dark flakey ash dust swirling in the blood red liquid.\n\nWith great effort he released Leo's hands, although it felt like he was ripping off his own skin, like his heart would explode within his chest if he didn't immediately recapture his fingers and their warmth and their soft heavy comforting weight, if he couldn't...\n\nHe grabbed the bowl, staring desperately into Leo's eyes as he gulped down the wine. There was no gentle sipping, no savoring of the vintage, there was no time for that.\n\nHis soul was screaming.\n\nThe bowl disappeared, he sucked air into his lungs like he had never taken a single breath before. Light blazed around them, through him, filling his every pore until he was floating in it. The floor beneath him, the air around him, the very room disappeared, until there was nothing but the light and a heavy silence, like cotton in his ears.\n\nSoftly a song drifted to him like smoke, so quiet he almost couldn't hear it, a whisper keeping him anchored to this reality. It was a voice he hadn't heard in so many long lonely years. He opened his eyes wide against the pure light, searching for her, but all he saw was wisps and shadows that barely registered in his vision.\n\nHer voice was radiance and rapture and it filled him to bursting. He threw his head back and his arms wide, soaking in the sound, letting it reshape him, mold him into something that only knew happiness and love. All his pain and fear and self-doubt was pushed away, never to bother him again.\n\nHe lowered his chin, and there, fading into clarity through the blinding whiteness was his mate, his love, his Leonardo, reaching for him, wrapping him in the safety of his arms. His hand came up to rest against Leo's cheek, shimmering light shone from the lines on their skin and they pressed their faces together, breathing each other's breath, letting their warm tears mix and soak together on their skin.\n\nHe was complete, whole, forever connected to a force that had been missing from him for his entire life. And when Leonardo captured his lips, sealing their bond with a kiss that sparked through him from the top of his head to the tips of his toes, he finally knew what euphoria truly was.\n\n~*~\n\nLater, Donatello told them that the feast that followed was so joyful and raucous that most of the village was roused from their beds to gather at the gates, watching the celebrations in their sleep clothes, wondering if the nobility had finally lost their minds.\n\nFireworks lit the sky almost as brightly as the midday sun, shining with the stars against the deeply black backdrop, flashing colors across the gathered faces drunk on wine and the rolling waving force of their bonding.\n\nThere was laughter and dancing and heated conversation that led to other heated things as the lanterns burned low that not a single noble in attendance would ever admit to participating in. Raphael laughed as he described the servants' flushed faces as they rushed to place privacy screens into the corners of the room in an attempt to maintain some semblance of order.\n\nThe council had retired early, but not before one of them became so intoxicated that when he stood to relieve himself he tumbled right off the dais into a full bowl of punch, leaving the other clan leaders to almost fall out of their chairs with laughter as he spluttered on the floor.\n\nBut thankfully, and much to Michelangelo's relief, both he and Leonardo were not present in the room to witness the celebration descend into debauchery.\n\nOnce the ceremony was complete it immediately became clear that theirs was no ordinary bonding. The force of their joining crashed over the estate like a tidal wave, driving Raph and Don to quickly usher them from the hall into the sanctuary of their shared row house before they lost control of themselves completely.\n\nLeo and Mikey remembered none of it, not even a single second. For them there was only each other's eyes, and the intense pleasure of their bodies pressed together for hours immeasurable, until they fell into a completely exhausted sleep just as the sun was cresting the horizon.\n\nIt was a bonding that would be spoken of for centuries. But Mikey didn't need to remember it, not when he lived it over and over again every day that he awoke in Leo's arms.\n\nHe had been lost when he came to the Hamato Clan Estate, drifting through each day without purpose or passion. But now he was one half of a perfect whole that would never be separated ever again.\n\nWith the clan he had found his family, and with Leonardo he finally knew what it was to be needed and wanted and accepted, and most importantly of all, what it meant to be loved.\n\n[center]~*~ Fin ~*~[/center]", "writing_bbcode_parsed": "
~*~*~*~

Chapter Sixteen: Never Ever Getting Rid of Me

~*~*~*~


~*~ 6 Months Later ~*~


Once upon a time there was a young turtle that lived on a farm. His favorite thing in the whole wide world was sitting on his grandmother's knee while she sang him a song. He was too young to understand the words, but that was alright, because he was happy when she sang to him, and that was the only thing that mattered.

Then one day his grandmother was gone. They wouldn't tell him where she went, not his mama or his papa, they just told him to stop crying and do his chores. After that he wasn't happy anymore.

As the days turned into weeks turned into months turned into years, he began to believe that he would never be happy again. But he never forgot the song she would sing to him, and during his lowest moments, on his darkest days, he would sing her song quietly to himself and he would remember, if only for a moment, what it was like to feel happy.

Now, so many years later, he had finally learned what it was to be genuinely happy. He knew love and he knew joy; he had a family that was his very own. Not the one he was born into, but the one he chose. And because of that his grandmother's song had taken on a different meaning. He no longer sang it to feel happiness for himself, he no longer needed to, now he sang it to teach others how to find their own happiness.

The children were still learning how to hold the strings to make all the different notes, but they knew the words and the melody, and they would sing until the walls of the schoolhouse shook with their joy.

Leonardo had given him the one-room cottage that sat near the village square and helped him fill it with every instrument there was, even the ones he didn't know how to play. But he was learning. Donatello brought in books for him from every corner of the world with instructions on how each instrument worked, and he would sit for hours, refusing to turn a page until he perfected each technique. And every morning, with the children gathered around him, he would show them what he had learned. And the joy of their song could be heard in every corner of the estate.

But on this day the hour was late, so the children weren't with him. The village was quiet and the light from the setting sun stretched long across the floor of his schoolhouse as he sat alone, strumming the strings of his precious guitar, lost in the melody he was creating. Maybe he would remember to write it down tomorrow if he could remember the notes.

A shadow fell on the stone at his feet, blocking the light. Lifting his gaze, he found his friend smiling down at him, quiet as the final notes drifted through the air between them.

"It's time.'' Donatello said after the music faded away.

Drawing a deep breath Michelangelo stood, carefully placing his instrument back into its case. He turned to see Don had stepped closer, his presence a calming balm on the nerves that were starting to shiver in his chest.

"How do I look?'' Mikey asked, holding out his arms and spinning once to try and hide the tremor in his voice.

Don chuckled, reaching out to pull on Mikey's tunic. "Well, I think you would look better if you would ever take the time to fasten your toggles correctly.''

Mikey smirked, looking down at Don's fingers as his friend fixed where he had looped a toggle through the wrong fastening, his gaze lingered on the expanse of orange silk decorated by delicately embroidered brilliantly blue bell flowers cascading across his shoulders and down his arms.

It was true he hadn't paid much attention as he was dressing earlier, his thoughts were bouncing around too frantically in his head for that, making it difficult to focus on anything, least of all his shirt. That's why he was hiding in his schoolhouse. Well, not hiding, that wasn't what he did anymore, but sometimes he still needed a few minutes alone with his guitar, just to calm his mind when things got too complicated.

He wasn't scared. He wanted this night more than he'd ever wanted anything in his life. But old habits were hard to break, all the same. When he'd said he needed some air, Leo understood, pushing him out the door as he smiled and kissed his forehead and told him not to be late. And Don had only come looking for him because he knew how lost in the music Mikey could get.

Sometimes he wondered if they knew him better than he knew himself.

"Nervous?'' Don asked, smoothing the wrinkles in the orange silk.

"This isn't going to be the same as yours, is it?'' Mikey asked after a pause.

Don tilted his head with an amused smile as he considered the question before replying. "Not... quite the same. The council is here for one... and there will be fireworks after. But you're not really going to be in a position to notice any of those things anyway.''

Mikey's eyes widened, swallowing through the realization of what his friend was implying. "Donnie, please don't let me do anything... embarrassing... in front of the council.''

Don's hearty laugh filled the cottage as he took Mikey's arm, draping it through his own. They left the schoolhouse and the village square behind, walking the main road back to the estate at a leisurely pace.

Villagers on their way home from their daily work stopped to bow and give their well wishes to Michelangelo. They all addressed Donatello as a lord now, which would never not be weird, and even though Don said he was starting to get used to it, Mikey didn't really believe him.

As they walked Don stretched a little, rubbing the edge of his plastron with a grimace. His wound was completely healed, there was hardly even a scar where the dagger had pierced his side. But after his battle with Hun's general, he always seemed to favor the area of his injury when the weather turned foul. Mikey looked back over his shoulder and, sure enough, dark clouds on the horizon looked like they would threaten rain tomorrow.

When they passed through the gates Mikey saw Raphael waiting for them at the bottom of the stairs leading up to the main hall. Dressed in his finest, he was leaning against a stone column, twirling one of his weapons around his fingers. He stopped and hooked it through his belt as they approached.

"Bout' time.'' He grumbled. ``Everyone's waitin'.''

"We aren't late.'' Don said, stepping close to his mate.

Raph reached out and grabbed Don's hand, "I see ya' even cleaned the grease out from under your fingernails.''

Don smirked at the tease. "Don't you start. I wasn't even in my workshop today.''

Mikey tried not to laugh. As soon as Don was out of danger and on the mend, Raphael had spent an entire week from dawn to dusk building a workshop for him behind the blacksmith?s barn. Mikey had helped where he could with Leo pitching in as well, so by the time Don could walk on his own again it was ready.

When they presented it to him, the former steward was so surprised he could barely form words, and for every day since he'd spent almost all of his time shut up inside it, working on one project or another. It was usually a battle to pull him out of there, even for meals, and his skin was always smudged with dirt and grease. Raph would tease him about it, but in an affectionate way that always had Don giving in rather than working until the sun began to rise.

As often happened when the two were together, Raph and Don became distracted by each other, momentarily forgetting where they were and what they were supposed to be doing, losing themselves in each other's eyes and whispering as they bent their heads close together.

Mikey shuffled from foot to foot, giving them a moment as he eyed the doors to the main hall. They were wide open, and he could hear the low rumble of quiet conversation from the room beyond.

Don had asked him if he was nervous, and he supposed he was a little, but not as much as he thought he would be. Leonardo was in there, waiting for him, and that thought brought a warmth to his cheeks that had nothing to do with nerves.

He jumped as a hand came to rest at his elbow and he turned to find Don watching him with a knowing smile.

"I think I'll go see how Leo is doing.'' He said with a playful wink before he disappeared up the stairs.

Raph came over and turned him by the shoulders, waiting until he was sure he had Mikey's full attention. "Ya' know how different this is gonna be for ya', right?''

"I have a pretty good idea...'' Mikey admitted.

"And I don't mean just because of who's in there.'' Raph insisted, gesturing at the hall. "Leo's the heir, and someday he'll be the leader of this clan. There're gonna be expectations on you that not even I have to deal with.''

Mikey took a deep breath and released it slowly. He knew all this already; Leo had explained it. But the fact that Raph was here, taking the time to tell him as well, to help him prepare for what was coming, meant so much. It showed how much he really cared.

"You'll represent the family, but more importantly you'll represent him, and the image he has to uphold.'' Raph continued. "You may even be called on to stand in for him in certain situations. Usually that'll only be if I'm not available, but still. Are ya' sure you're ready to take on that responsibility?''

Mikey sighed. "I won't pretend like I even really understand what any of that means. At this point it seems like it's all just stuff I'll need to figure out as I go. But I'm ready. I'll do anything he asks of me because I love him, and I'll happily do whatever it takes to be with him.''

Raphael gazed at him solemnly for a full minute, staring deeply into his eyes, judging the truth of his words through the set of his shoulders and the steadiness of his breath. When he didn't flinch, Raph graced him with a rare warm smile.

"Go on then, he's waitin' for ya'.'' Raph said

Bolstered and relieved and so much more than just ready, Mikey turned to the hall, lifting his foot to the first stair, jerking in surprise when he was suddenly stopped by Raph's hand on his arm.

"Keep your eyes on Leo.'' The second son said. "He's the only one in that room that matters right now.''

Mikey nodded, smiling gratefully before turning back to ascend the stairs, Raph falling in behind him as he climbed. When he reached the open doorway, he stopped and stared.

The hall was aglow with light. Hundreds of lanterns hung from every beam, candles adorned every surface. Swathes of silk in orange and blue, bearing the bell flower in glittering thread, fluttered from the rafters.

A sea of faces filled every corner seated at small round tables. Nobility from every province across the Hamato lands sat in conversation, dressed in all the finery of their stations, sipping wine from golden cups. At the far end of the room the dais had been expanded to hold a long table with enough room to seat the entire council, ten clan leaders in all, including Lord Hamato himself at the center.

Mikey swallowed, this wasn't the intimate warmth of the waterfall grotto, with sparkling lights and the friendly faces of the serving staff bringing a familiar feel of normalcy to the gathering. This was a room filled to the brim with wealth and power, he could see it on their haughty faces and in the way they held themselves. They had come to the estate not to see Lord Hamato or Leonardo or even the ceremony itself. They had only come to be seen themselves, to have the distinction of being able to say they were here to witness this night.

These nobles lived in a world so far removed from everything he had ever known, and seeing their self-importance so blatantly on view, made him hesitate.

Not even one of them seemed to notice his arrival.

And why would they? He thought with a momentary chill. He was a peasant, little more than dirt scraped off the bottom of a shoe standing among them like he belonged. He had never felt so out of place surrounded by so many people.

It might have even been enough to weaken his resolve, but then he looked up, to the end of the aisle extending straight out in front of him, and there was Leo, beautiful in blue with soft sapphire fabric framing his shining eyes, beaming at him like he was a perfect diamond in a room full of coal.

Michelangelo's smile widened as courage filled him. Raphael was right. Let these nobles preen their feathers if it makes them feel better. Right now, Leonardo was the only one in this entire massive hall that mattered.

He felt Raph's hand come to rest on his shell, giving him a gentle push, so he took a deep breath and with his head held high, stepped into the room.

They walked down the center aisle together, Raph just a step behind him, the comforting weight of his hand remaining on his carapace. They were halfway across the hall before the conversation surrounding him changed. It grew quiet, he heard their whispers, saw their stares out of the corners of his eyes. They saw him, confidently wearing Leonardo's symbol like he was one of them... and they laughed.

His step faltered hearing their snickers, seeing the way their heads bent together as they watched him approach the dais. His age-old instinct to flee bunched in his muscles and he clenched his fists. Then he heard Raph snarl low, discrete in his warning but clear enough that the surrounding nobles quickly contained themselves, drawing back their shoulders and pursing their lips at the offense of being so scolded by Lord Hamato's second son.

But it was exactly the support he needed. Knowing that Raph was protecting him, kept his feet moving forward, kept his eyes locked on Leonardo waiting for him at the end of the room.

They don't matter... He repeated the thought in his head and was surprised to find it wasn't hard to truly convince himself of it. Leo didn't see him as a peasant. Leo had always treated him like they were equals, had never once made him feel like he was lower than him. It was part of why he had fallen so hard and so easily for the eldest son. Leo had accepted him for who he was from the moment their eyes had met.

They were in this together and they always would be.

Don was standing with Leo, smiling warmly as they all finally came together at the end of the aisle. Raph said something to his brother, but Mikey failed to hear it, the stress of the long walk had filled his ears with a low buzzing sound. He blinked as the second son gave his shoulder a heavy pat and he stepped away, taking Don with him to a nearby table.

Then Leo took his hand and suddenly the room may as well have been empty. His vision focused and the noise in his ears cleared. With all his senses centered on his mate he squeezed Leo's fingers.

"Hi.'' He whispered.

"Hey.'' Leo whispered back. "Ready?''

Mikey nodded and Leo pulled him down to kneel on plush cushions positioned in front of the dais where a priest patiently waited. Silence settled over the hall.

A week ago, Don had sat down with him and tried to explain what was about to happen. But nothing his friend had said during that conversation could have ever prepared him for the reality of his own bonding ceremony.

As soon as the priest started chanting his body went completely numb, like he was floating above the floor. All he could hear was his own heartbeat, all he could feel was Leo's hands clutching his, all he could smell was candle wax and jasmine and the musk of smoky incense, all he could see was Leo's gentle hazel gaze drinking him in.

Leo grinned sideways, trying not to laugh, and Mikey had no idea what was so funny, but he found himself biting his lip, suppressing the giggle threatening to burst past his lips.

Somehow his brain registered the priest asking for their consent and he gave it simultaneously with Leo, enthusiastically smiling wide as the priest lowered the lanterns and lifted their ribbon.

Lines of orange and blue swam in his vision and he thought his fingers might fall off from how tightly Leo was holding his hands. When the priest laid the ribbon on his skin he jumped, startled by how cold and slick it was.

The tightness that enveloped them as the length wrapped around their wrists and up their arms, twisting and folding until they were encased together in the soft silk, was the strangest feeling. He honestly couldn't tell if he loved it or hated it. Maybe it was a mix of both.

His shoulders shook with an emotion that didn't have a name as tears he couldn't have held back even if he had wanted to escaped to roll down his cheeks. He looked up to find Leo's mask wet with his own tears, not caring or at all bothered by who was watching, who would see.

The light of a flame filled his vision as the priest lifted the candle between them, the next part of his speech nothing but a low murmur in his ears. He trembled as the flame lowered to rest against the silk covering his wrist.

The oil-soaked ribbon easily caught and Mikey released a shuddering breath. It was warm and comforting, his hands and arms tingling where the blue fire slowly spread between them. It was nothing more than a gentle tickle, like a feather dragging lightly across his skin. He could feel the tremors from Leo's fingers and squeezed him tighter, pulling gently at his hands.

He watched the ashy ribbon disintegrate and flake away, drifting down into the bowls beneath them. Through his tears the blue and orange lines left behind to swirl on his skin seemed to glow in the candlelight. He couldn't take his eyes off them.

The droning voice of the priest came to him again, like he was hearing it from underwater, a pulsing hum as he chanted. Then a bowl appeared under his nose, the sharp earthy scent of wine filling his nostrils. He tore his eyes up to look and he could see the dark flakey ash dust swirling in the blood red liquid.

With great effort he released Leo's hands, although it felt like he was ripping off his own skin, like his heart would explode within his chest if he didn't immediately recapture his fingers and their warmth and their soft heavy comforting weight, if he couldn't...

He grabbed the bowl, staring desperately into Leo's eyes as he gulped down the wine. There was no gentle sipping, no savoring of the vintage, there was no time for that.

His soul was screaming.

The bowl disappeared, he sucked air into his lungs like he had never taken a single breath before. Light blazed around them, through him, filling his every pore until he was floating in it. The floor beneath him, the air around him, the very room disappeared, until there was nothing but the light and a heavy silence, like cotton in his ears.

Softly a song drifted to him like smoke, so quiet he almost couldn't hear it, a whisper keeping him anchored to this reality. It was a voice he hadn't heard in so many long lonely years. He opened his eyes wide against the pure light, searching for her, but all he saw was wisps and shadows that barely registered in his vision.

Her voice was radiance and rapture and it filled him to bursting. He threw his head back and his arms wide, soaking in the sound, letting it reshape him, mold him into something that only knew happiness and love. All his pain and fear and self-doubt was pushed away, never to bother him again.

He lowered his chin, and there, fading into clarity through the blinding whiteness was his mate, his love, his Leonardo, reaching for him, wrapping him in the safety of his arms. His hand came up to rest against Leo's cheek, shimmering light shone from the lines on their skin and they pressed their faces together, breathing each other's breath, letting their warm tears mix and soak together on their skin.

He was complete, whole, forever connected to a force that had been missing from him for his entire life. And when Leonardo captured his lips, sealing their bond with a kiss that sparked through him from the top of his head to the tips of his toes, he finally knew what euphoria truly was.

~*~

Later, Donatello told them that the feast that followed was so joyful and raucous that most of the village was roused from their beds to gather at the gates, watching the celebrations in their sleep clothes, wondering if the nobility had finally lost their minds.

Fireworks lit the sky almost as brightly as the midday sun, shining with the stars against the deeply black backdrop, flashing colors across the gathered faces drunk on wine and the rolling waving force of their bonding.

There was laughter and dancing and heated conversation that led to other heated things as the lanterns burned low that not a single noble in attendance would ever admit to participating in. Raphael laughed as he described the servants' flushed faces as they rushed to place privacy screens into the corners of the room in an attempt to maintain some semblance of order.

The council had retired early, but not before one of them became so intoxicated that when he stood to relieve himself he tumbled right off the dais into a full bowl of punch, leaving the other clan leaders to almost fall out of their chairs with laughter as he spluttered on the floor.

But thankfully, and much to Michelangelo's relief, both he and Leonardo were not present in the room to witness the celebration descend into debauchery.

Once the ceremony was complete it immediately became clear that theirs was no ordinary bonding. The force of their joining crashed over the estate like a tidal wave, driving Raph and Don to quickly usher them from the hall into the sanctuary of their shared row house before they lost control of themselves completely.

Leo and Mikey remembered none of it, not even a single second. For them there was only each other's eyes, and the intense pleasure of their bodies pressed together for hours immeasurable, until they fell into a completely exhausted sleep just as the sun was cresting the horizon.

It was a bonding that would be spoken of for centuries. But Mikey didn't need to remember it, not when he lived it over and over again every day that he awoke in Leo's arms.

He had been lost when he came to the Hamato Clan Estate, drifting through each day without purpose or passion. But now he was one half of a perfect whole that would never be separated ever again.

With the clan he had found his family, and with Leonardo he finally knew what it was to be needed and wanted and accepted, and most importantly of all, what it meant to be loved.

~*~ Fin ~*~
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