This story was written as a Secret Santa gift for Snuffes! 3 The prompt was something fall-themed, with maybe a little Donnie/April thrown in. I had a lot of fun with this one! :D
The Epic Battle of the North Woods
"We've been walking a long time now," Leo said. "Are you sure you won't tell us where we're going?"
"Not yet," April told him for the fourth time, resisting the urge to roll her eyes.
"We're really close to the middle of Manhattan," Raph said suspiciously.
This time she did roll her eyes. "Trust me, okay? I know what I'm doing." Her shoes slipped a little on the mildewy brick ledge she was walking on, but Donnie's hand tightened around hers and held her steady.
Well, the truth was she mostly knew what she was doing. She'd planned their route pretty well, but she hadn't anticipated that the sewer tunnels would be running with water. The tunnels near the lair were pretty damp most of the time, but they didn't often have standing water. These tunnels did. The turtles didn't seem to mind sloshing along in ankle-deep storm runoff, but April's shoes weren't waterproof. So she'd stepped up on the ledge that ran a few inches above the water, depending on her sense of balance – and Donatello's steadying hand – to keep her from falling in.
The rumble of traffic overhead echoed off the curving walls of the tunnel, punctuated by staccato bursts of sound as agitated drivers honked at each other. Every so often, the shadow of a passerby blocked out the daylight streaming through the sewer grates, and the turtles would pause, darting careful glances up at the street.
"We just passed 106th," Raph said.
April pulled out her map again and squinted at it in the dim light. "Hang a right down that tunnel. Donnie, give me a hand?" She rested her hand on his shoulder and hopped down from the ledge into his outstretched arms so he could lift her across the water and deposit her on the dry concrete on the other side.
"Are we almost there?" he asked.
April hid a smile at the deliberately casual tone of his question. "Almost," she said lightly. "Just a little further."
Mikey bounced along next to his brothers like an excited puppy, freckled face half hidden behind the brightly-colored fleece scarf April had given him. The warm orange fabric with cheerful yellow sunbursts had immediately made her think of Mikey when it caught her eye in the store. Having bought the youngest turtle a scarf, she naturally had needed to look for scarves for his brothers. She'd found navy blue fleece with white snowflakes for Leo and a bold red and black plaid for Raph, but Donnie had stumped her because all the purple fabric looked like something a six-year-old girl would wear. She finally found a deep violet fleece with a geometric yellow pattern at the ends of the scarf.
Raph had teased her when she'd given them their scarves: "Just because we always wear the same color masks doesn't mean we color-code everything." Leo had slugged him in the shoulder and told him to be nice, but April had just laughed and thrown the scarf at his face.
"Hey, I don't hear cars anymore," Mikey said, tilting his head curiously.
"Hmm, north of 106th..." Donnie mused. "April, are we under Central Park?"
She checked her map one last time before stuffing it in her coat pocket and giving him a self-satisfied grin. "Yep! Come on, let's go."
"Um. Go where?" Leo asked. "You don't mean go up to the surface, do you?"
"You see that light coming down?" Raph said, pointing. "That's the sun. It means it's daytime. We can't go up there."
"Just trust me, okay?" she said again. She climbed up the sturdy metal ladder and put her shoulder against the manhole cover, grunting a little as she heaved the cast iron disc out of the way. After glancing around to make sure the area was deserted, she climbed out and beckoned to the four brothers. "Come on, nobody's around!"
The turtles hesitated for just a moment, then Leo took a deep breath and scaled the ladder. He ducked his head towards his shell a little as he climbed into the light, but the apprehensive look faded from his face as he looked around. "Whoa."
One by one, the turtles emerged to stare in wonder at the surrounding trees. The late afternoon sunlight made the red, orange, and yellow leaves glow, and as the breeze rustled through the branches, the light flickered and danced, making the trees look as if they were on fire.
"Where are we?" Mikey asked, blue eyes wide with awe.
"The North Woods. There aren't a lot of people that come to this part of the park. But the main reason I brought you here is over this way." She stepped out of the street and into the trees. The turtles followed close behind. Her feet crunched over the dry leaves that had already fallen, but the footsteps of her companions didn't make a sound.
She led them over a ridge, and through a dense cluster of trees until they were well concealed from any late afternoon hikers that might come their way. "There," she said, pointing.
The turtles stared at the giant mound of fallen leaves that had been dumped in a hollow between two hedges. Raph folded his arms and lifted a brow ridge. "You brought us here to see a bunch of dead leaves?"
"Oh, for Pete's sake. " April huffed and rolled her eyes. "Come on, guys, you watch TV. What are you supposed to do with a huge pile of leaves?"
Mikey's eyes lit with a delighted grin. He set his nunchaku on the grass before taking off at a run, cannonballing into the leaf pile with an enthusiastic "Wahooooooo!"
"Come on!" April grabbed Donnie's hand in both of hers and gave him a tug. He resisted just long enough to toss his bo next to Mikey's chucks, then fell headlong into the pile after her.
"Yaaaaah!" Mikey pounced on his brother, bowling Donnie head over heels and sending a cloud of leaves flying. April burst out laughing and hurled an armful of leaves at both of them – and was promptly buried as the pair of brothers scooped up leaves in both hands and flung them back at her. Dimly, she heard Leo and Raph bickering - "Leo, just put 'em down! They won't get dirty. You can't jump in the leaves with your katana strapped to your shell!" - but a moment later the two of them plunged into the pile and joined in the leaf war.
April yelped as Donnie stuffed a bunch of leaves down the back of her coat, picking up a double handful of dry, crackling ammunition to throw back at him. "Hey, I'm on your side!" she squeaked.
"Every ninja for themselves!" he shot back with a mischievous smirk. "No mercy – waugh!" Raphael leapfrogged over Leo and slammed into Donnie with a solid thunk of shell-on-shell, his muscular weight plunging both turtles out of sight, deep into the leaf mound.
"April, come on!" Leo called, beckoning out to her. "We can get the high ground!"
April floundered her way through the pile towards him, dodging leafy missiles from Mikey and flinging back some of her own. Leo grabbed her hand and pulled her up to stand next to him on a small rise in the ground. They were still buried in leaves nearly up to their waists, but they had solid footing.
"See? Strategy!" Leo said with a grin.
April laughed at him. "You are a dork."
He grinned wider. "Maybe, but I'm gonna win."
The two of them stood on their little hill, fighting off Mikey, Don, and Raph. The leaves flew thick and furious as the five teenagers hurled giant armfuls at each other. April's shoes slipped on the slick leaves underfoot and she fell with a "yeep!", disappearing into the pile. Leo dove after her and hauled her to her feet, spinning on his heel to kick Raph back while he helped April climb to the top of their little hill once more.
April spat bits of leaf from her mouth, darting a glance around while she scooped up another armful of ammo. "Where's Mikey?"
"Booyakashaaaaaa!" The turtle in question launched himself at Leo from behind, throwing his arms around his big brother to send them both tumbling into the leaves. April had just enough time to gasp in surprise before Donnie exploded from beneath the leaves right in front of her, grabbing her around the waist and pulling her back with him. They landed in a flurry of leaves next to a still-tussling Leo and Mikey. Laughing breathlessly, April rolled away from Donnie and struggled to her feet. She scooped up handfuls of leaves and threw them back at the purple-masked turtle.
The fight ended abruptly as Raphael came plowing through the leaf pile and tackled all three of his brothers at once. April jumped backwards, nearly slipping again, and lifted her fists above her head in victory. "Who has the high ground now?"
A three-fingered hand clamped around her ankle and gave a yank, toppling her into the leaf mountain again. She let out a shriek of indignation that immediately dissolved into helpless giggles. She flopped on her back alongside the four brothers, lying with her limbs outstretched in the leaves as she caught her breath. Raph and Mikey swatted at each other a couple more times before they, too, went still. April took a long, slow breath, drinking in the sharp brown scent of the autumn leaves and watching the gold branches sway against the deep blue of the sky.
"That...was epic," Mikey said with a happy sigh.
"Actually, Mikey, the word 'epic' is more suited for..."
"Actually, Donnie," Mikey interrupted, "the word 'epic' is the word I wanted to use. But thanks for playing." Mike and Don stuck their tongues out at each other as Leo chuckled.
"How'd you know about this place?" Raph asked, voice uncharacteristically quiet and nearly lost in the gentle sound of the wind in the trees.
"My dad and I used to come here," April answered with a wistful little smile. "Park maintenance dumps a lot of the leaves here in the North Woods instead of hauling them away. Since we lived in an apartment, we never had a yard to rake. So dad would bring me here to jump in the leaves."
They lay there for a while, just listening to the breeze whisper through the thinning treetops. The light went from gold to amber as the sun began to set. Donnie was the first to get up, reaching down to take April's hands and help her to her feet. April unzipped her coat and tossed it at him while she pulled off her scarf to shake off the scratchy bits of leaf that remained.
Donnie brushed off her jacket and gallantly held it for her when she was ready to put it back on. "What now?"
"Well, there are a couple more things I wanted to show you, but we'll have to wait until it gets dark and the park empties out a bit," she answered.
Leo shrugged into the leather straps that held his katana. "Do we stay here until then?" he asked.
April smiled fondly at the carefully-hidden trepidation in his voice. Highly skilled ninja or not, the turtles couldn't help being a little nervous above ground during daylight hours. "No, we can head back down. Actually, we'll probably make better time that way."
"Where do you want to go?" Leo asked.
"I wanted to take you guys to see the statue of Hans Christian Andersen and the Alice in Wonderland monument."
"Awesome!" Mikey said enthusiastically. "We've seen those things in pictures but never in real life. How do we get there from here?"
"It's around the level of 74th Street, east of Fifth Avenue." She held out her map and pointed to the location as the four brothers clustered around to peer over her shoulder.
Leo nodded briskly. "Not a problem. Let's head out."
"Do you want to keep the map?"
"Nah," he said, waving her off. "We got this. Come on, let's get going." They made their way back to the manhole they'd climbed out of. After a brief pause to make sure there was no one around, they darted across the open ground and slipped out of sight. Mikey brought up the rear and pulled the manhole cover into place after him, shutting out the fading daylight and plunging the tunnel into murky darkness once again.
Leo tarried a moment, looking thoughtfully at the different tunnels branching off from their location. Raph tapped Leo's arm with the back of his hand and pointed wordlessly at a tunnel that stretched off to the east. Leo nodded once and started off, his brothers and April following behind.
April shivered a little as she walked, pulling the zipper on her jacket up to her chin. Even though the sun didn't provide much warmth this time of day, the damp chill of the sewers had a way of clinging to you and leaching into your bones. Despite the fact that they had grown up in the sewers, the turtles were affected, too – April could see more than one of the brothers wrapping their scarves more securely around their necks. Mikey had bundled his scarf up around his snout so his entire face below his mask was hidden. He gamboled along next to Raph and Leo, trying to convince them that they all needed hot cocoa in order to stay warm.
April could feel Donnie darting occasional glances at her as they walked side-by-side. He took a deep breath, then reached out and wrapped his arm around her, resting his hand cautiously on her shoulder. She smiled up at him, and a little thrill buzzed through her from her head all the way to her toes. Donnie was still so shy about touching her; even though she'd assured him that he didn't need to ask her permission any more, this was the first time he'd actually reached out to her without checking to make sure it was okay.
Despite the embarrassed little smile and the deep ruddy blush that streaked across his snout, Don's arm settled more confidently around her and he held pulled her more snugly against his side. "Thanks for taking us up there," he said. "This was really fun."
April fought to keep the amused look off her face as she heard how hard he was trying to prevent his voice from cracking nervously. "Yeah, for me, too."
"We've spent a lot of time studying maps of New York – both street maps and the sewer system – and we've held the maps in our heads for years, but we haven't really had the opportunity to explore above ground. We've seen pictures and all, but it's nice to actually go to the places we've read so much about. Especially for Mikey."
"Well, it's fun for me to play tour guide," she answered. "Particularly when I get to take you to some of my favorite places. I've always loved the Alice monument. And lately, I feel like I can relate to her," she said with a wry smile.
"Except instead of going through rabbit hole, you came through a sewer tunnel?"
She smirked up at him. "Something like that."
"Hey, April!" Mikey spun around and started walking backwards so he could talk to her. His eyes widened a little as he saw Donnie's arm encircling her shoulders, but he continued without missing a beat. "April, you have been nominated to be the one to go get us hot cocoa when we get to the statues."
She gave him a little salute. "Yes, sir."
"Excellent." His eyes sparkled as he grinned behind his scarf. "Carry on, you two."
"Hmph." Donnie's brows drew together a little at the smug tone in his little brother's voice, but his glare lacked heat, and his frown disappeared entirely as he turned his attention back to April. "Well, rabbit hole or not, even though circumstances could have been better, I'm glad you came down here."
April felt her own her own cheeks turn pink at the warmth in his brown eyes. Impulsively, she reached out and took hold of his scarf, pulling his head down so she could kiss him on the cheek. "So am I."
Donnie's only response was a stifled squeak, and his face turned redder than she had ever seen it. April knew he wouldn't be able to manage any coherent speech for several minutes, but that was okay. She just smiled and snuggled closer to his side as Leo led them around a bend and into a dark, echoing tunnel. The air turned even colder, but she didn't feel the chill at all.