This is a series of unconnected drabbles, the prompt set for which was provided by the 1sentence community on livejournal. The original challenge is to write one sentence for each prompt, but I chose to extend this to a maximum of three sentences. This series is focused on brotherhood, friendship, camaraderie and love.
Delta
vs 1
#01 - Air
The wind whips around them as they hurtle across the rooftops, the city running in brilliant streams of gold and silver beneath their feet as they leap startling lengths from one building to the next. The night echoes with his brothers' cries of joy and for once, Leonardo laughs and does not care.
#02 - Apples
"Thrashed your high-score by five-thousand, three hundred and seventy-two points," Raphael grinned wolfishly at Michelangelo, who collapsed in front of the television screen, aghast. "How d'ya like them apples?"
#03 - Beginning
The silence is ripped apart by a piercing siren that seems to clang right between his ears and Raphael lurches up in his hammock only to be blinded by a glare he could swear scorches his eyeballs raw. "Rise and shine, oh brother mine," a voice booms over a bullhorn, "this is your complimentary four am wake-up call!"
#04 - Bugs
"But it wasn't me, I swear!" Michelangelo shrieks as he dashed through the lair, Raphael in hot pursuit. "Oh yeah? Who the hell else would dump a load of rubber bugs in my bed?" Raphael bellows as he tears after his nimble brother, fists at the ready. On the couch, Donatello turns a page of his book, and smiles.
#05 - Coffee
"Ew, this one's got mould growing on top," Michelangelo exclaims, after finding yet another one of Donatello's half-finished mugs of coffee behind a stack of books jammed onto a shelf.
#06 - Dark
"Sitting in the dark staring at a computer screen can't be good for your sight, Don," Leonardo says with soft concern from the doorway and Donatello looks up, rubbing bloodshot eyes wearily. "Gosh, I lost track of time," he replies, "I just got so wrapped up in the chemical analysis of these crystals - " "Come on," Leonardo's voice is gentle as he takes his brother by the elbow and urges him from his chair, "I'll fix you something to eat."
#07 - Despair
It's not so unusual to find Michelangelo in the den where the blue glow of the television is the only light there is at this late hour and yet something makes Donatello pause as he passes by. Michelangelo's candy sack is on his lap and again and again his hand delves within to fetch another sweet as he stares at the screen upon which scenes of trick-r-treaters play on the news, his blue eyes glittering and stricken. "Another whole year to wait," he says, and his voice sounds so unusually soft, so tinged with sorrow, that Donatello goes over to sit down beside him.
#08 - Doors
"Dude, you nearly in?" Michelangelo hissed in Donatello's ear. Donatello sighed and swivelled the pick, his thumb firmly positioned on the torque as he listened intently for the tell-tale click and snap of the pins. "Mikey, just keep a lookout like I told you - don't worry, Raphael's firecracker stash is almost ours!"
#09 - Drink
The door to Michelangelo's bedroom creaks and he sits up, blinking at the shadowy figure who slips in. "Here," Raphael tosses a can of beer onto the bed, his voice gruff, "saved ya one." Michelangelo gasps and snatches up the illicit drink with joy, at once forgiving his surly big brother for saying he wasn't man enough yet to hang with him and Casey: "Why, Raphie, you do care!"
#10 - Duty
"Alls I'm saying Leo, is this Bushido book specifically says you gotta 'carry rouge and powder in your bosom for an important occasion,'" Michelangelo waves The Way of the Samurai around by a corner, grinning mischievously into Leonardo's unsmiling face. "That's why I got you that Urban Decay contour kit, bro - how could I let a brother of mine fail in his duty?"
#11 - Earth
"Everything's so clean out here - even the dirt!" Michelangelo sighs as they sit by the lake, fishing lines cast lazily in the sparkling water, a warm breeze stirring the tops of the trees that surround them. "You're an idiot," Raphael grumbles, then looks down to his feet, squishing his toes into the mud. A short distance away a turtle clambers onto a flat stone and stretches its neck to the sun while Raphael watches, and smiles.
#12 - End
For just a moment, Leonardo pauses on the deck of the cargo ship and gazes upwards to where a full moon hangs over the towering skyscrapers of the city he was raised in. A smile curves the corners of his mouth and he leaps silently onto the dock, vanishing into the shadows. Almost home, he thinks, and suddenly he is not quite so weary anymore.
#13 - Fall
"Seriously, Mikey," Donatello eyes the plate that is set before him with an incredulous eye, "pumpkin-spice flavoured bacon?" "Tis the season!" Michelangelo jovially replies as he whirls around the kitchen in his floral apron. Leonardo sets his teacup down on the table with a chink, his jaw in a stiff line: "He spiced my green tea. He pumpkin-spiced my green tea! Damn it, Mikey!"
#14 - Fire
Outside the wind howls furiously around the farmhouse, and the old walls creak. Donatello glances up nervously from the battered copy of War and Peace he found on a shelf as Michelangelo huddles a little closer to him on the cushions they've piled in front of the couch. Raphael stabs at the fire with the iron poker so that it sparks and flares, then turns to tuck the blankets in tighter around Leonardo, who remains unconscious and frighteningly still.
#15 - Flexible
"Left foot red," Donatello doesn't even bother to hide his grin while he watches Leonardo strive to maintain a dignified air, gracefully stretching his left leg practically perpendicular to his body. "Ugghhh, I just got a face full of Leo's tail!" Michelangelo exclaims in horror, wobbling dangerously on one arm and Raphael chuckles and gives Donatello a thumbs up.
#16 - Flying
"Kick it up another notch, Donnie!" Raphael bellows as the sewer slider roars through the tunnels and Donatello grins and hits the accelerator. The slider jumps forward, cold air whipping past them as their shouts of delight echo off the stone walls.
#17 - Food
"You guys really need to learn how to open your minds to new experiences," Donatello says cheerily and plunges the alien utensil straight into a bowl of wiggling tentacles as the others watch on, aghast. "If openin' my mind means openin' my mouth to alien crud like that, you're on yer own, Don," Raphael retorts, and slides his own bowl across the table to click against Donatello's.
#18 - Foot
"Are you ready for this, Donnie-boy, huh?" Michelangelo's nunchuks whirl around him in a blur as the young ninja spins and poses, "you ready to face the mighty spinning nunchuks of the greatest warrior throughout the multiverse - the Battle Nexus Champion?!" Donatello leans on his bo and eyes the twirling Michelangelo with a wry look before extending his weapon and hooking it neatly behind one of his brother's ankles. Michelangelo goes down hard on his shell, nunchuks flying and Donatello smiles: "does this mean you'll be handing over that trophy now?"
#19 - Grave
"Kinda freaky of Leo, gettin' us to train in a graveyard," Raphael gazes out across the cemetery, the dark silhouettes of the headstones marking endless rows of the dead. "What's wrong Raphie - scared they're coming to get you?" Michelangelo's eyes gleam as he taunts his brother, wiggling his fingers and creeping towards him, "they're coming for you, Raphie! Coming to get you!" "Quit it, numbnuts," Raphael snarls and Michelangelo throws back his head and roars with laughter, a laugh that abruptly becomes an hysterical shriek when Leonardo jumps on him from behind a headstone.
#20 - Green
"It's not that easy being green," Michelangelo sings as he gathers up his comic books from where they are strewn over the couches. "Having to spend each day the colour of the leaves," Donatello chimes in, wandering past with a stack of dirty dishes in his hands and Raphael looks over from where he is polishing a pile of weapons, adding his voice to the chorus: "when I think it could be nicer being red or yellow or gold -" " - or something much more colourful like that," Leonardo finishes, neatly folding another towel.
#21 - Head
bro u wld not believe wat i heard raph say 2 leo tonite omg was solid gold u wanna noe?! Donatello sighed and quickly tapped a message in response: Mikey - I'm right next door. Why don't you just come and tell me in person? A moment later and his phone beeped with the reply: no way man u srs use ur head then they'll noe were talkn about them! u suck at ninja gossip.
#22 - Hollow
Donatello sits at the table and watches as his brothers roll the dice, move their pieces and bicker over property prices, but it's as though he watches them from a distance, through a film that separates him from them. His turn comes and he rolls and moves accordingly, and somehow he smiles and offers up some generic banter, but he is scarcely aware what he does. All he can see or hear is the smoke and the blood, the roar of gunfire and the screams of his brothers as they are cut down in a brutal fight at the end of the world.
#23 - Honor
"You ain't the only one with principles, ya know!" Raphael snaps at Leonardo, the tendons in his neck bulging, his eyes bright fire. "I do know," Leonardo says softly and something about the way he holds Raphael's gaze with his own stops Raphael from violently shrugging off the hand he lays on his shoulder. "And I've always respected that about you."
#24 - Hope
"Mikey," Leonardo sighs as they gaze up to where the moon shines dully through the drain grating, "I wouldn't count on the world being ready to accept us any time soon." "You never know, bro," Mikey's voice is stubbornly hopeful and his eyes are wide and full of silver. Despite himself, Leonardo feels a twinge in his heart that is curious in its ache and he wonders if this is what it feels like, to believe in the impossible.
#25 - Light
It's the glint of light under Leonardo's door that catches Donatello's eye as he comes back from the bathroom in the middle of the night. Gently, he pushes the door open to find Raphael on the futon, cleaning the weapons their brother left behind by the dim glow of a lamp. Their eyes lock for an instant, and then Donatello sits down on the mat and silently begins polishing a naginata.
#26 - Lost
"I'm tellin' ya Leo, the farmhouse is this way," Raphael grasps Leonardo by the arm and attempts to tug him southwest through the trees, but Leonardo plants his feet and resists. "You're wrong, Raphael," he replies stubbornly, his eyes steely on his brother, "it's back through this copse." "Ah, actually, you're both wrong," Donatello voice informs them over Leonardo's shell-cell, "can I just give you the directions already?"
#27 - Metal
The pain that shoots through his arm is as sharp as the blade of one of his swords and Leonardo staggers against the barn wall, a sweat breaking across his forehead that has nothing to do with the blaze of the nearby fire. He opens his eyes to see a hand extended before him and he hesitates only a moment before shakily grasping it. Silently, Raphael helps him to stand upright once more, and then the two brothers turn back towards the anvil.
#28 - New
"This is an Oculus Rift!" Donatello is brimming with excitement as he snatches up the visored headset Raphael had dumped on his desk when he came home from one of his mystery midnight excursions. "But how did you even - " he glances at his brother who is crudely strapping a gash on his arm together with butterfly strips, battered and bloody. " - you know what? I don't even want to know."
#29 - Old
"I can't describe it - it's - it's the weight of it in my hands - the way the leather warms against my palm, the scent that it holds - it's such a visceral experience. It makes me feel connected to its history, to the memories it holds," Leo rambles, a dreamy cast to his face. Donatello rolls his eyes and interjects: "Geeze, Leo, will you just get a Kindle already?"
#30 - Peace
"So, where are Mikey and Raph again?" Leo asks as he contemplates the chessboard with a creased brow. "Leo, shhhh - " Donatello interrupts him, picking up his queen and preparing to move, "you hear that? Silence. Let's just enjoy it while it lasts. Checkmate."
#31 - Poison
"Uggghhhhh!" Michelangelo's shriek rang around the lair, "my cereal's been spiked with hydrochloric acid! Someone's trying to kill me! Helllpppp! Conspiracy!" Raphael watches his hysterical brother run from the kitchen in a panic, then turns to Donatello with a quizzical look. "Baking soda in the sugar bowl," Donatello explains with a grin, "payback."
#32 - Pretty
The roar of the rollercoaster mingles with the distant sound of the surf and the Wonder Wheel is a glittering rainbow orb against a midnight sky. The Midway is clustered with a thousand smiling faces illuminated by brilliant neon and the air is redolent with the scent of cotton candy and hot dog. From a nearby rooftop, four mutant turtle brothers watch, and sigh, and yearn.
#33 - Rain
Raphael lies amidst the sweet-smelling hay in the loft, listening to the rain patter on the roof of the barn. The ladder creaks and a moment later Leonardo appears, lithely pulling himself up into the lodge. "Thought I'd find you here," he says as he settles down into the hay, and Raphael grunts.
#34 - Regret
"Raph - I'm sorry," Michelangelo's eyes are unexpectedly sincere, wide and grave, and Raphael's jaw has dropped before he can stop it. "Uh - forget it, bro," he mumbles, shrugging his brother's hand from his arm, discomfited by the abrupt intimacy of the moment. They continue on in silence for a while, before Raphael's gaze sidles to Michelangelo, and he hems awkwardly: "But thanks."
#35 - Roses
"Um - why do you smell like roses, Raphael?" Donatello is grinning as the hotheaded turtle's face takes on an expression of confusion followed by mild panic, "have you been using April's shampoo?" "At least it's an improvement on how he usually smells," Michelangelo chortles, leaning over the couch, "though it begs the question why he was using shampoo at all!" Raphael flings his damp towel down and storms across the living room to retrieve his belt and mask: "hey, it was the first thing I saw in there! I didn't know! Shaddup!"
#36 - Secret
"I am so tired of trying," Leonardo is sobbing, one hand covering his eyes as hot tears stream down his face, mingling with the shower, "so tired of pushing myself, so tired of striving to be more… just so damn tired." There's a knock at the door and Donatello's voice can be heard: "Leo? You've been in there a while - everything okay?" Swallowing hard, Leonardo draws in a long, steadying breath and when he speaks his voice is perfectly measured and calm: "I'm fine, Donnie - just felt like taking a little extra time tonight."
#37 - Snakes
"Well, I did find this," Donatello pulls the faded box out of the cupboard, wiping a thick layer of dust off the lid. "Snakes and Ladders?" Michelangelo exclaims, "where's the Nintendo? Geeze, talk about the farm that time forgot!"
#38 - Snow
"I'm not sure it's such a good idea to leave these here," Leonardo dubiously eyes the four ninja turtles lovingly sculpted out of snow in the middle of the park. Donatello cocks a brow ridge. "Yes Leo, everyone is going to assume there's turtle men living amongst them now. I saw a dragon made of snow a couple of blocks away. Do you think we need to worry about that?"
#39 - Solid
"I ain't gonna tell Leo, Don, you know I'm no snitch," Raphael crosses his arms over his plastron and glowers at his brother, who sits amidst the destruction, shaking. "I'll even help you clean this shit up. But you are gonna tell him yourself. Got it?" Donatello heaves in a shaky breath, his eyes glistening, then nods just once.
#40 - Spring
A nunchuk wraps around the sword's blade and an instant later Leonardo finds himself disarmed and astounded as Michelangelo punches the sky and crows, springing around the dojo: "Yahoooo! I beat him! Even the great Leonardo is no match for my whirling nunchuks of doom!" Leonardo glares at his brother, his chin lifted high: "Humility in victory is a desirable trait, Michelangelo." "Pft, so is not being an arrogant ass when telling your bro he's too undisciplined to win, Leo," Michelangelo retorts as he jives.
#41 - Stable
"Ugh, Raph and his temper," Leonardo complains as he sits down beside Donatello on the couch, rubbing thick fingertips against his temple, "these mood swings of his are impossible." Donatello shrugs and doesn't take his eyes from the video game he is playing, fingers jabbing at the controller. "Hey - at least you can always count on them."
#42 - Strange
"Don't you think it's kinda strange - the way Leonardo is so obsessive about cleaning off all the wax from his candlesticks - like, every day?" Michelangelo ambles into the kitchen and pulls a bag of crisps from the cupboard, shoving a fistful into his mouth so that his next words are muffled: "I swear he spends more time cleaning them than he does meditating." Raphael just cocks a brow ridge at his brother: "Yesterday we fought a bunch of monsters in an underground city and you think that's strange?"
#43 - Summer
"Schooooool's out for summer!" Michelangelo belts as flips down the stairs, "schoooooooool's out for EVER!" "We don't go to school, bonehead," Raphael snaps from where he is working out on his punching bag, "it's just another buncha days, same as any other." Michelangelo stops, shoulders slumping, his eyes abruptly wounded: "man, you can be such a buzzkill sometimes."
#44 - Taboo
"Michelangelo -" Leonardo's voice is scarcely more than an appalled whisper, profound in its gravity. "Please tell me you are not actually using the Masamune katana that Usagi gifted to me at Christmas in order to slice pepperoni."
#45 - Ugly
"This is going to leave a nasty scar," Leonardo says as he gently sponges away the blood from the gash that oozes on Michelangelo's thigh. "I'm going to tie it off and then we'll get you home to Don. Good thing I came out with you." "No kidding," Michelangelo cracks weakly, "cos I think you're gonna have to carry me home. My hero," he cups his hands beneath his chin and flutters his eyes, then turns around and pukes straight into the storm drain.
#46 - War
Michelangelo inches along the pipe, silently chuckling to himself, water balloon loaded and lolling in the palm of one hand. Patiently, he lurks above the dojo, poised and grinning and waiting. "Ahem," comes the voice from above and he looks upwards only to be smacked in the face with three balloons all at once.
#47 - Water
Above the lake the sun streams down upon them and Raphael floats blissfully in the water, suffused with so rare a sense of peace there's nothing that could spoil his good mood. At least until Michelangelo swims up beneath him and yanks him below the shimmering surface by an ankle.
#48 - Welcome
"So lemme get this straight" Raphael grumbled as he collapsed onto the couch, his heels hitting the coffee table with a thud, "Mikey's sick so he gets to choose what we do for our birthday - and he chose a Michael Bay marathon? " Leonardo turned to him from the armchair he sat on with folded arms, his mouth in a grim line: "Welcome to our worst nightmare."
#49 - Winter
All around them is the whisper of snowflakes dusting the trees, the woods hushed and glittering and still. For a moment, they simply stand amidst the endless depths of freedom and gaze around them, awestruck. Then Michelangelo whoops and scoops up a snowball that seconds later smacks Donatello right on the plastron.
#50 - Wood
"This one?" Donatello runs a hand over the trunk, the bark rough beneath his palm, the air fragrant with the scent of pine needles. Michelangelo gives the thumbs up and Leonardo nods, then Raphael steps forward. "Our first real Christmas tree," he grins, and swings the axe.
I hope you enjoyed those! A huge thank you to my bae, gladrial, for her beta work and for helping me brainstorm on a lot of these - shifting gears so many times within one piece was tricky!