Title: Twins

Author: vashsunglasses

Rating: T

Fandom: Ninja Turtles

Disclaimer: The TMNT belong to Mirage.

Summary: Two turtles wake up in human form, in the middle of a grassy field, with no idea how they got there or where the rest of their family is. Mystery AU.

"Hello?" Michelangelo interjected, waving a hand in front of his face, "Ground control to Major Tom?"

"Planet Earth is blue and there's nothing I can do," Leonardo replied, smiling.

"Well now that we've established that you're all caught up on your Pop Culture references, can we go?" Michelangelo begged.

Leonardo chuckled, "Sure thing, Mikey."

Michelangelo started jogging away, pack bouncing on his back as he went. Leonardo just stood there, and rolled his eyes, wondering how long it would take his twin brother to realize that he wasn't following. After what Leonardo estimated to be about a minute, his brother stopped and whipped around to look for Leonardo, and when he saw that he hadn't moved, he glared and stomped his foot. Leonardo wasn't impressed.

"YOU'RE GOING THE WRONG WAY, DOOFUS!" Leonardo yelled, waving and pointing his arms in a vaguely easterly direction, which was almost opposite of the direction Michelangelo had run, "IT'S THIS WAY!"

"WHAT?" Michelangelo replied, cupping his mouth, "WHY THE SHELL DIDN'T YOU TELL ME SOONER?"

"I WANTED TO SEE HOW FAR YOU'D RUN BEFORE YOU NOTICED, SHELL FOR BRAINS!" Leonardo also cupped his mouth like a megaphone.

"WHY DO YOU KEEP PICKING ON ME ANYWAY?" Michelangelo asked.

"BECAUSE IT'S FUN!" Leonardo replied. "AND BECAUSE YOU LOOK SO FUNNY WHEN YOU GET MAD." Leonardo watched his brother begin to run back to his position, 'And also you remind me of an cute little angry kitten,' he thought to himself, 'but no way am I going to say that out loud. Holding hands is one thing, but calling my twin brother cute is kinda gay…'

As Michelangelo came closer to Leonardo he didn't slow down as Leonardo had expected, but sped up. He hadn't been expecting his twin to do that, and so by the time he recovered from his shock he only had an instant to dodge, but dodge he did, and Michelangelo barreled past him, sprawling on the grass. There was a pause, then both brother discarded their packs and Leonardo slid into a neutral stance, while Michelangelo stood up quickly and went into an aggressive one.

"If I can't prank you, I'll defeat you," Michelangelo said, panting.

Leonardo shrugged with calculated ambivalence, "Sure Mikey, we need to test our ninjitsu anyway…"

"You can be a pompous ass sometimes, bro, "Michelangelo replied, throwing a slow, experimental punch which was easily deflected by his twin.

"I know," Leonardo replied, "And it's really useful if I want to make someone angry." Then he lashed out with his foot at the same moment Michelangelo realized what he had just confessed to. His foot tapped his twin in the side.

Michelangelo's eyes widened, and he rubbed his side with one hand, breaking stance, "You mean all that 'Fearless Leader' stuff is just an act?" he asked.

"Not all of it," Leonardo replied, striking out with his other foot and hitting his twin in the thigh, "Get back into stance." After his brother went into a defensive stance, Leonardo continued, "Most of the time I'm not acting at all, but sometimes I put up an act if I need to get a rise out of somebody, or if I need to inspire confidence."

"Oh," Michelangelo, then suddenly began a series of strikes at his brother's torso… head… elbows… knees… His strike was successful on the arms, and Leonardo stepped backwards a bit to safely shake the tingles out of his arms. "I guess I do the same thing," Michelangelo said, waiting for his brother to be ready again, "Sometimes I put on the funny cuz I know you guys need to lighten up, and not just because I'm feeling hyper."

"I think that's enough for now," Leonardo said, panting. "We've barely done anything and already I'm feeling worn out." He bowed deeply at the waist and Michelangelo returned the bow. "Anyway, I already knew that about you, and I really appreciate it. I don't know if anyone's told you this, but you are a big help on our team, you keep us focused, by not letting us dwell on the bad stuff."

Michelangelo shrugged, "You guys take everything way too seriously anyway…" his stomach growled. "Look, even my stomach is starting to complain, can we go now?"

Leonardo smiled, "Yes Mikey, we can go now."

They picked up their packs and began to walk across the grassy field towards the river which would eventually lead them to the city, or so it said on the map.

Michelangelo turned his head to look at his brother as they reached the riverbank, "So bro, any idea what this city we're going to is called?"

"Not a clue," Leonardo replied, "I recognize some of the kanji from Japanese, but it's spoken differently in Chinese." He sat down on a boulder on the edge of the river and began to roll his pant legs up, Michelangelo copied him close by.

"I thought you'd know, being the big honor student and all…" Michelangelo said disappointedly, hurriedly rolling his pant legs up.

"Nah," Leonardo said while pretending not to notice his brother's sudden urgency, "I'm good at strategy and Japanese stuff, but I don't know very much about China. Raph's the one who spends all his time in China Town, so he'd be the one to ask if he was here."

Michelangelo stood up and walked nonchalantly over behind his twin, "Raph huh?" he replied, "Makes sense. He always did read the Chinese Food menus better than the rest of us..."

"Mikey!" Leonardo exclaimed, "I'm not going to stand up until you get out from behind me so you'd better move where I can see you. Anyway, what happened to Twin Privilege?"

"Oh yeah!" Michelangelo said, moving around to his brother's side, "I forgot all about that! I just saw you sitting there and thought about how funny you'd look if I pushed you into the river… I guess I've got a one track mind."

"Huh?" Leonardo said, "A one track mind is it? Do you think it runs in the family? Or maybe that it's a twin thing? Because I'd hate to be drinking tea with Master Splinter someday and suddenly find myself telling him about your theories on the connections between ninjitsu and voodoo…"

"Eep!" Michelangelo squeaked.

Leaving his sandals on, Leonardo waded into the shallow river. With his pants rolled up, only his feet would get wet. "Come on Squeaker, let's go."

Author's Note: I'd like to thank everyone who has reviewed, and also those who have added this story to their alert or favorites list: Dead-Sea-Monkey, Kirby-Chan269, Leonardo94, Luna Gemini, bellelovesmikey, Hoodoo, Kapu37, Krimson65, MikeyPhreak, SaiyanQueenVega, Tewi, Wild Dog- untamed cainine, Riften, Thalpomene, Sakura117us, Spiritual Stone, Tewi, VGiselleH, Luciferian, and myown262.

I'd also like to apologize to anyone who knows China well. I know next to nothing about it, except what can be seen on the travel channel, so I'm trying to be as vague as possible so that people can fill in the blanks…