Chapter Text
Hamato Leonardo.
The eldest son of Hamato Yoshi. Skilled in the art of ninjutsu, especially when yielding his iconic twin katana blades. He had led his brothers to victory countless times over the years, making his ancestors proud of the man he'd grown into.
See, that was the problem. 'Leonardo' was not a man; he was not a boy.
She was a girl and her name was Hamato Inari. It changed so much about her, yet also very little at all. She was still obsessed with Space Heroes and an absolute mother hen to everyone around her. All that truly changed was how people perceived her.
Sometimes, waking up to her brothers calling her 'Leo' or 'bro' set off something ugly inside of her. She would spend that entire day only speaking in short, clipped sentences, as well as hiding away from everyone, even her Sensei.
On other days, it was manageable. Inari could remind herself that they weren't trying to be malicious. How could they when they had no idea how their words were hurting her? Nobody knew that she was their sister. Nobody knew that the name 'Leonardo' made her want to scrape her skin off. Nobody.
It was too scary to tell anyone. Though it's not like she's never given it any thought.
Karai was the first to come to mind. She was her older sister, who she trusted with her life, despite all their past differences. The turtle knew that she would have absolutely no issues with her identity, but worried that she would use that attitude to accidentally push Inari into coming out to everyone. The edgy kinouchi often had problems with knowing how to handle a delicate situation, preferring to tackle it upfront. That sadly puts Karai as a no for now.
Next up was surprisingly Shinigami. The two didn't know each other that well, but got along very quickly. This was actually a good thing, because telling a decent friend would be a thousand times easier than telling her family. She had very nearly done it several times now. However, the main thing that stopped her was imagining how hurt her brothers and father would be upon finding out she told someone that's nearly a stranger, before telling them.
Casey was an option she had only considered briefly. Don't get her wrong, Inari loved him like a brother, but that meant she knew how awful he was at keeping secrets. He was even worse than Mikey (that's really saying something).
April was the final option that made sense. It made the most sense. She trusted her and knew that the girl could keep a secret, even from loved ones. Unsurprisingly, she was the main catalyst into realising that 'Leo' just wasn't right. When Donnie saw the first human girl the turtles had ever met, he fell head over heels in love. His older 'brother' simply had a gender crisis.
Not only that, but the redhead had spoken about having transgender classmates before. This one girl called Rose had been her partner for a science project. Inari had actually seen her briefly when heading to meet up with April. She was immediately jealous of how pretty her dyed pink hair was, along with the beautiful flowy skirt that went down to her ankles. Above all else, it made her feel safe around the girl that was essentially her older sister at this point.
She longed for that sense of safety right now. Well, that may be dramatic, but she's allowed to have her moments!
A few minutes prior, her brother Raphael had caught Inari dancing around the main living area of the lair. He of course immediately jumped to making fun of her, without even knowing the cause of such giddiness.
"Yo fearless! Nice moves." he prodded the eldest sibling on the back of her head, chuckling when she spun around in shock.
"Oh hey Raph!", her voice totally did not crack halfway through that, "What ya doin?"
"I think you should be answering that one. What the hell has you wigglin' like a mad man, or turtle…..or worm?"
"It's nothing!"
"Well you answered that suspiciously fast. Like Mikey when he denies breaking something in the lab."
Shit. Shit. Shit!
The truth is, Inari had foolishly believed she was alone in the lair. Normally, the girl wouldn't mind company from any of her brothers, but today she was finally watching the new season of the Space Heroes reboot! Not only did she need complete silence to treasure this masterpiece, there was also a slight problem with the content. Well, depending on who you ask, that is. Personally, she saw no problem with it and was actually over the moon- hence the dancing.
One of the male crew members had a boyfriend! A boy with another boy! On her favourite show! It was the greatest reveal ever! Despite the fact that they're both only side characters, the representation made her grin spread from ear to ear.
This brought back around the issue of explaining why this got her so excited. As explained previously, Inari was not ready to come out, especially not to Raph.
"Oh you know, just the usual 'Leo is such a huge nerd' nonsense, haha." she didn't even sound convincing to herself.
"Right…..well I'm turning this garbage off. I wanna watch that Marvel movie we found the other night."
The red clad turtle was shocked at the remote that got lobbed at his face. Normally it was a death wish to pry their fearless leader away from Space Heroes. Meh, he didn't have the energy to look further into that.
Meanwhile, Inari was sat a few feet away, panicking badly. It was such an empty interaction. Meaningless really. It held no significance to the other party, so why couldn't she breathe? Nothing negative was said. Hell, Raph didn't even find out what she was freaking out about! Get it together girl!
All of those were very good points.
She needs to run away. Now.
Without even bothering to say a word to the other turtle, she charged to her bedroom, having to leap over a skateboard that was discarded precariously in the middle of the hallway. She slammed the door behind her and shoved her wardrobe in front of it, to make up for the lack of a lock. Then she began to pace erratically around the room, whilst flapping her hands down by her waist.
That was way too close. This had been her best kept secret for years and it almost got revealed because of a brief lapse in awareness. She can't do this anymore! It's way too stressful.
Glancing at the desk in the corner, Inari made an important decision in that moment.
She grabs her writing supplies, sitting down in the rickety, old office chair they had scavenged from a junkyard a few years prior. It was time to start writing a plan; a script if you will. That may seem strange, but the blue clad turtle had always found immense comfort in planning, even when it comes to social interactions.
Sadly, it only took two hundred seconds for her to scrunch up the first draft, casting it aside.
Another seventeen for the next.
Then eighty nine.
Then ten.
This was how she ended up with over a dozen balls of paper scattered on the floor around her feet, but that's okay. Inari finally perfected what she wanted to say. She knew how to open up about the biggest part of herself.
Before leaving the safety of her room, she gathered all the failed drafts and tossed them into the bin, where she set them on fire with a lighter she kept hidden in one of the desk drawers. Now there was no chance of someone accidentally stumbling upon them, or getting a little too nosy. (Of course she made sure the fire was fully out once the evidence was destroyed)
Taking care to move the wardrobe back to its original spot, Inari slipped out into the hallway. She glanced onto the living area to see Raph still in the same spot, though he had seemingly fallen asleep. It made sense to remain in stealth mode, just in case.
Some banging could vaguely be heard through the thick steel doors of Donnie's lab, but it was nothing out of the ordinary. If she heard any explosions, then she would panic.
It was much easier than expected to sneak out of the lair. She still made sure to lose any potential followers by taking a route impossible to keep up with.
Now that was taken care of, she glanced up at the slowly setting sun. April should be back from any after school clubs by now. The perfect time to swing by, knowing her brothers won't be topside for at least another few hours.
She had already decided that it made the most sense to come out to the red-head first and she would rather do it at her place, than at the lair where it's so much harder to escape.
Taking a deep breath to compose herself, Inari leapt onto the fire escape by her friend's window.