Request for redwalllover28! Hope you like it! It's a story where the turtles are upset because it's almost their first mutation day without Splinter, so April, Casey, and Karai try to cheer them up.
Rated K+ for SAD and safety
2k12'verse
Enjoy!
Four teenage, mutant, ninja turtles sat in the pit, looking glum. Michelangelo was boredly flipping through channels, glazed over eyes not even registering what was on. Raphael was mindlessly petting Chompy, who was more than happy with the attention. Attention-but-not-really-attention. Whatever. Donatello was staring at a photograph. The photograph he'd found on the dojo all those months ago when the Kraang were invading...
Leo was leaning his elbows on his thighs, and his hands were interlocked into one another, and his chin was resting on them. He had silent tears running down his face. He never let out a sob, never sniffled, just let them stream down his face. No one asked him about them.
They all were sad for the same reason.
Master Splinter was gone...
It was almost their mutation day...
And he couldn't celebrate with them...
April and Casey walked in, Karai behind them. "Hey, guys!" the redhead greeted happily.
Not even Donnie looked up. It was as if they hadn't heard.
Casey glanced at Karai, who shrugged. "Guys! Hellllloooo?" he asked. "We weren't expecting a welcome committee, but no hello at the very least?"
April nudged him and walked over to Leo silently. He glanced up at her, not moving his head as she knelt in front of him. "Hi, guys," he said hoarsely, sounding a lot like he had when he'd woken up from his 3-month coma.
April frowned. "Leo... Are you OK?"
Leo hummed in acknowledgement.
"Uh..."
"Yeah, April," he rasped, sitting up and leaning against the back of the bench. "Just a little depressed..."
"Do you wanna tell me why?" she asked; she wouldn't go scrounging in his head to find it if he was willing to tell.
"Master Splinter..." he muttered, a new set of tears streaming down his face. He still didn't sob.
April immediately understood. She looked at the other humans, whose eyes were wide in realization. "Alright, Leo. Time to get up," she said, grabbing his hands and pulling him up. He groaned pitifully and plopped back down when she turned around.
Karai smirked, but didn't say anything as April went over to Donnie. "Up, Donnie! Let's get you guys some pizza! You look like you haven't eaten since last time we came here?"
It was unsettling that he didn't disagree.
Donatello plopped back down after April turned to Raph and Mikey, who hadn't even acknowledged her.
Casey smiled like a shark.
"UP!" April moaned, dragging them both up at the same time. She walked back a few steps and looked to admire her handiwork...
And saw the same scene they'd walked in on.
"UGH!"
Karai, April and Casey sat in the kitchen. Karai had a soda and April was playing with ICK, who was in her cooler. "So, what're we gonna do about the guys?" Casey finally asked. They all looked at each other.
"We'll make this their best Mutation Day ever!" April suddenly smiled.
"Alright, here's the plan..." she then dropped her voice to a whisper and told her human(-ish - Karai) friends the plan.
Leo awoke in his bed and immediately wanted to go back to sleep. Maybe until Mutation Day was over. He could sleep for a day, right? He moaned when his door opened. "Leo!" was whisper-shouted at him.
"Karai?" he asked hoarsely. He smacked his lips; he needed to brush his teeth.
"Get up! Happy Mutation Day! I have a surprise for you!" the girl smiled from the middle of the room.
"Karai, go 'way..." the leader muttered.
"No! Get up or I'll bite your head off!" Karai threatened, hissing with her snake tongue to prove her (untrue but very real to Leonardo) point.
Leo was up on his feet in a second. Karai grabbed his arm and dragged him out; he grabbed his mask on the way out.
On the floor of the pit, there was a HUGE-ASS HOLY MOTHER HOW WAS IT THAT BIG box in blue wrapping paper and a huge bow on top. "Karai... How much wrapping paper did you use on t?!" he asked, turning to her.
"Just open it, Goody Three-Toes!"
Leo eyes her warily, but stood on the bench and started to unwrap it neatly. It took him about 2 full minutes to finally get the wrapping off. He took off the top and looked inside.
And his eyes nearly popped out of his head. "Karai!" he gasped, taking the light object out of the box.
It was an official cardboard cutout of every character in Space Heroes and Space Heroes: The Next Generation.
"Where did you find this?!" he asked.
"It was in the front window of a comic shop. I used some of the money we took from Shredder's hide-outs and got it for you as a present," Karai explained.
"THANK YOU!" Leo yelled, running up to her and giving a bone-crushing hug. Karai smiled, her arms pinned to her sides and restricting her from hugging back.
But she felt awkward doing that, though, so...
"What's all the racket?" a gruff voice asked, and they broke with large blushes, rubbing the backs of their heads. Raph walked in, rubbing sleep from his depressed eyes. He blinked at the cutout. "Uh..."
"Raph! I have a present for you, too!" Karai beamed, grabbing the hothead's mask tails and pulling towards the dojo, despite his protests.
"What?! KARAI! GET OFFA... me..." the red-clad teen trailed off. His eyes bulged. "WHOA!"
Before him stood 2 boxes. One had every issue of Modern Ninja Magazine, and the other The Fantastic Food Groups. "KARAI! How did you-?!"
"Bought them in the same place I got Leo's present," Karai smiled as Leo started to drag the cutout to his room, smiling giddily.
Raph high-fived her. "Sorry I'm not much for hugs. Thanks," the hothead said gratefully.
"Anything for my bros~" Karai smiled.
Donnie whined pitifully as April shook him awake. "Donnie?" she whispered.
Don opened one eye, then jumped about three feet above his bed. "APRIL!" he yelled.
"Hi, Donnie. C'mere! I have something to show you!" the psychic said, grabbing his arms.
"April, I really don't feel like - OK we're going!"
Donatello was pulled to his lab and gasped. "April!" he exclaimed.
"Do you like it?"
"Like it?! April, this is amazing! How'd you find it? Tell em you didn't buy it please-"
"Relax, D. I found it in perfectly good condition on the sidewalk. I'm surprised no one else grabbed it. Cleaned it off, and voila!"
On Donatello's desk was a brand new laptop, as Mikey had broken his other one and Donnie needed a new one to copy all the info onto before it deleted automatically.
"But can't the people who make it see what I'm-"
"You are Donatello Hamato. You can stop that."
Donnie seemed to brighten a little from his depression.
Mikey woke up in the back of a truck. "Huh?" he mumbled lazily. He must be dreaming. That meant he couldn't wake up any tme soon for Mutation Day. Nice. Not that he knew the time in the real worl.
But whatever.
"Hey, Mikey," a new voice broke through his thoughts.
"Hey, Case," he responded in a sad tone.
"What's wrong?"
"Splinter's not here to celebrate Mutation Day with us. But not that you care. You're just part of my dream," Mikey droned.
"This ain't a dream, bro," Casey retorted.
"Oh, it's not? Where are we going?" Michelangelo asked boredly.
"Comic store. I am going to let you pick any 10 things in there that you want."
"What?! No way!" Mikey immediately perked up.
"C'mon, Mike! I got your disguise already, too!" Casey smirked, throwing the pile of clothes at his friend as they pulled.
"Ya think that people're gonna think it's weird that there's a dude climbin' outta the back'a yer truck when there's a passengers seat there?" Mikey asked, taking the offered money and stuffing it into his pocket, as he climbed out.
"Eh. Not the weirdest thing in this city. After the Kraang invasion, these people can't be surprised anymore."
Mikey frowned a bit, thinking of when Shredder had thrown Splinter down that drainpipe. He sniffed. "Yeah." He gave a watery chuckle as he walked into the store.
"As expensive as you want!" Casey called after him. "It's Karai's money, anyway," he added under his breath.
Now the entire mutant family (and Casey and April) were in the pit. They were laughing joyfully at the pictures in the scrapbook April had brought over of moments with them. Leo was blushing profusely as Karai gave him a noogie. April had shown an entire page devoted to him watching Space Heroes with his fanboy expressions on. Karai was by far laughing the hardest.
"Alright, alright, everyone calm down!" Leo chuckled, unable to hide his own smile. "It's nice to see us all happy for a bit. April, Casey, Karai," he started, gaining their attention, "thank you guys so much. For everything. You made us realize that even if our father is gone," he sniffed, trying not to look at his brotehrs' forlorn expressions, "that our friends can help fill that little hole in our hearts."
And then he whispered not-so-subtly in Karai's ear, "And the presents didn't hurt, either."
Karai giggled.
April closed her eyes. She sensed something... She gasped happily. "Guys! Turn around! Quick!"
Everyone did so, and their smiles were so bright the sun could not even try to compete.
Master Splinter's spirit stood behind them, smiling widely. "Happy Mutation Day, my family," he said, then disappeared.
"Happy Mutation Day, master/father/rat-dude!" they all called back to the air.
I would've had this up yesterday but my mom made me go to sleep! DX But it's here now. FINALLY! I'm sorry this took so long, redwalllover28. :/ But it's here! Hope you all like! Review, and vote on my poll on my profile! *thumbs up* BYE!
Shadow