Disclaimer: I do not own Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. Neither am I a chef. Takes place after Into Dimension X.
The Calm Before the Storm
"Ahh! Home sweet home! Feels like it's been forever since I smelled that fresh sewer air!"
Mikey bounded into the lair and took a deep breath, grateful for anything other than filtered Dimension X atmosphere. Closing his eyes and holding his arms out wide, he exhaled with a loud sigh, taking in the smells and sounds of home. It was good to be back.
"It's so weird to think that you were gone for so long," said Leo as he walked past his little brother with a comforting squeeze to his shoulder.
Raph smirked as he affectionately rubbed Mikey's head. "Yeah, and ta think we only got to enjoy it for a few minutes," he teased, ignoring the raspberry he received in return.
As the two eldest brothers plopped themselves down on the bench in the common area, Donnie came up beside his baby brother and smiled. "We're glad you're safe, Mikey, and thanks to you, I now have a power source for my Turtle Mech." A look of determination settled on his face as he began walking toward his lab. "Better get back to work on that. Who knows how much more time we have before the Kraang attack?"
With Donnie tucked away in his lab, and Leo and Raph relaxing in front of the television, Mikey turned back to the last member of their party.
"You coming in or what?"
Leatherhead stood just inside the entrance to the lair. His eyes were moving around the room slowly as the few memories he had of the turtles' home brought a soft smile to his face. Turning back to his oldest friend, he shook his head.
"No, thank you. I must go and prepare for the upcoming battle with the Kraang."
"Aw, come on," said Mikey as he raced back over to the giant alligator, "You've already been preparing for years in Dimension X! You just got back, dude! You could use a day to relax." Without even waiting for a response, he grabbed Leatherhead's arm and began pulling him down a nearby hallway. "You know what the first thing we need to do is? Eat some real food!"
Dragging him into the kitchen, Mikey pushed him in front of the table and instructed him to rest while he whipped up one of his famous pizzas. He sat quietly as he watched the young turtle dart around the room, grabbing various cooking utensils and ingredients. Pulling out a bowl, he began mixing flour, water, and various other things together, humming to himself as he worked. Once he had a nice dough ball, he put a towel over the bowl and set it aside.
"Alright," he said, rubbing his hands together gleefully, "the best part of making your own pizza is picking your toppings. We've got all kinds of awesome choices, so what do you want to put on it?"
Leatherhead looked down as Mikey waved his hand over the array of "awesome" toppings he'd gathered. There were common things, like a stick of pepperoni, some sausage, mushrooms, and onions, but he was unsurprised to find some more unique ingredients as well. Pickles, corn flakes, peanut butter, jelly beans, even chocolate sauce were all presented as viable options. He honestly had no idea what to choose. It had been a long time since he'd had any of them, after all.
"Hm," he mused, looking over the selection, "Perhaps I shall let you decide, my friend. I am sure I will enjoy whatever you wish to use."
"You sure?"
The grin on Mikey's face grew as the large mutant nodded in response. "Alright! Man, it's been so long, what should I choose?" His eyes darted across the surface of the table. "Well, I remember you really liked pepperoni - I mean, who doesn't? - so we'll go with that. And I've been craving onions. Ooh, and jelly beans! Jelly beans are awesome on pizza! And let's finish it off with peanut butter. Man, this is gonna be so great!"
He quickly began putting the unused toppings away, grabbing two cutting boards and knives as he returned to the table. Picking up the stick of pepperoni, he placed it on one of the cutting boards and slid it over in front of Leatherhead.
"Pizza always tastes better when bros work on it together," he said with a smile. "You just need to cut this into slices. Like this." Using his own knife, he leaned over and slowly cut three thin, perfectly even pieces off. Tossing one of them in his mouth with a moan, he grinned. "See?"
Leatherhead nodded as he picked up the tiny knife in his reptilian hand. With a growl of concentration, he put the other hand on the pepperoni and carefully lowered the knife. As he cut off his first slice, he looked at it and frowned. It was much thicker than Michelangelo's. He would have to be more careful. Making sure the next one would be thinner, he began cutting again. This time, however, he only made it halfway through the log before his knife hit open air and tapped against the cutting board harshly. Studying the half circle shaped piece closely, he realized he must have been cutting it at an angle. This was going to be harder than he thought.
Refusing to give up, he kept at it, but he found the more he tried to correct his mistakes, the more uneven his pieces became. After about a dozen slices, he looked at his pile, displeased with his work. Deciding it was best to ask for help at this point, he looked up and saw the young turtle skillfully chopping an onion. He was surprised, however, to see tears glistening in his blue eyes.
"My friend," he said curiously, "Whatever is the matter?"
Breaking his concentration, Mikey glanced up. "Huh?" He blinked a few times in confusion before laughing and wiping at his eyes. "Oh, no, it's just the onion. This always happens. It's pretty strong, see?"
Holding out the half he hadn't diced yet toward Leatherhead's face, the large alligator blinked before quickly jerking his head away and rubbing his eyes. He growled in irritation.
"Are you sure this is good to eat?" he asked, eyeing the white bits on Mikey's cutting board suspiciously.
"Oh yeah," he replied with a chuckle, "Don't worry, you'll like them once they're cooked. How are you doing on that pepperoni?"
Seeing the unhappy look on his friend's face, Mikey left his seat and came up next to the larger mutant. Leatherhead listened closely as his friend gave him a few pointers, helping guide his large hands until he got the hang of it. The pieces were still a bit large and uneven, but he felt much more satisfied with his progress as the young turtle returned to cutting the onions.
As he reached the end of the pepperoni log, the giant alligator looked up to see Mikey watching him with a proud grin, a pile of diced onions sitting next to him.
"Perfect! You're getting really good at this," he said enthusiastically, "Now we just have to wait for the dough to finish rising."
Leatherhead nodded. "And how long until that time?"
Mikey glanced at the clock on the wall. "About forty-five minutes."
After a silent pause, the two mutants looked at each other and blinked.
"Uh, maybe we should just make pizza noodle soup instead," said Mikey with a laugh as he reached up and scratched the back of his neck.
With their new change of plans, the young turtle jumped into action, grabbing a pot and mixing together the ingredients. As he brought everything to a boil, he added the noodles and handed Leatherhead the spoon. While the large mutant stirred the pot, Mikey happily chopped the pepperoni into smaller pieces while the smell of the soup wafted through the air. Finally adding the pepperoni, he placed a lid on it and let it simmer while both of their stomachs growled loudly.
The energetic mutant chattered on excitedly as the two waited for the soup to be ready. Leatherhead couldn't help but smile in the relaxing atmosphere, enjoying the company of his friend after years of isolation in Dimension X. He had kept himself busy, focused on his mission to thwart the Kraang's evil schemes, but sitting here in the grungy kitchen listening to Michelangelo catch him up on everything he'd missed made him realize just how lonely it had been.
As the young turtle finally announced that the soup was done, he quickly grabbed some bowls and began ladling some of the steaming liquid into them. Pulling out the bag of shredded cheese from the fridge, he sprinkled a heaping mound on top and stood back with his hands on his hips, admiring his work.
"Ta-da! Mmm, man, does that smell good or what?"
"Indeed," replied Leatherhead with a grin.
"But I feel like something's missing," said Mikey slowly, tapping a finger to his chin thoughtfully. His face suddenly lit up. "Oh! I know! Nothing's better than eating awesome food with awesome friends while watching an awesome action movie!"
Picking up his bowl, the young turtle hurried out of the room, Leatherhead close behind him. Upon reaching the common area, Leo and Raph both perked up, turning away from the television and looking straight at the bowl of soup in his hands.
"Hey, thanks for bringing us dinner," teased Raph as he jumped up from his spot on the bench and reached for the bowl.
Mikey turned his body so the hot soup was out of his brother's reach. "There's plenty more in the kitchen," he said with an evil grin, "but you can only have some if you let us take over the TV for a while."
Upon hearing the ultimatum, Leo's face fell. "But we were watching Space Heroes."
"Fine by me," said Raph with a smirk as he headed back toward the kitchen, ignoring the glare his older brother was shooting him.
Looking back at Leo who was standing with his arms crossed over his chest, Mikey put on his best, most innocent, puppy dog eyes. "Please? I've gone weeks without any TV!" He held up his bowl with a smile. "And this pizza noodle soup is my best batch yet."
Leatherhead watched in amusement as the oldest turtle visibly caved to his baby brother's pleas. He dropped his arms to his sides with a sigh. "Fine," he said as he trudged past them with a wave.
"Alright!" exclaimed Mikey as he set his soup down near his seat on the bench and rushed toward the bedrooms. "I'll be right back! Gotta go grab a movie from my room!"
Carefully lowering himself into the TV pit, the large alligator took a seat on the floor and wrapped his tail around him. Setting his hot soup next to him, he leaned back against the bench and patiently waited for his friend to return. It didn't take long before Michelangelo bounded back into the room, brandishing a VHS tape above his head.
"Got it!" he cried as he jumped into the pit and ran up to the VCR. "This will be perfect. 'Attack of Big Macc' is a classic!" Inserting the tape, he plopped himself down on the bench with a happy sigh and quickly began devouring his dinner.
As the movie began, Leatherhead carefully sipped his soup while lazily watching the screen. He didn't quite understand the appeal of action movies as he felt his life had plenty enough action to go around, but Mikey seemed to enjoy them, and he enjoyed Mikey's company, so he was satisfied knowing his turtle friend was happy. As the bustling fictional city got their first glimpse of alien spaceships flying overhead, however, he frowned. When the ship finally landed and out walked a robot with a laser gun, he growled. And when the robot began attacking the innocent bystanders, the white membranes covered his eyes and he let out a loud roar.
"Woah!" cried Mikey as the giant mutant stood to his feet and tossed his nearly empty bowl of soup across the room with a crash, glaring menacingly at the TV screen. The young turtle jumped out of his seat and scrambled around the ferocious alligator until he stood between him and the television. Out of the corner of his eyes, he saw Leo and Raph approaching from the kitchen, weapons drawn, while Donnie was peeking around the door of his lab.
"Leatherhead! Chill, dude! It's just a movie!" Mikey held his arms out, palms up to show that he was unarmed. "It's ok! It's not real!"
As the roar faded to a low growl, Leatherhead slowly lowered his raised claws and the membranes over his eyes receded. "Yes," he said, breathing heavily as he sat back on the floor, "You are right. Forgive me, my friend. I am afraid that perhaps this is not a movie I can share your enthusiasm for."
"Yeah, no kidding," said Mikey with a relieved sigh as Donnie quietly returned to his work and Leo and Raph put away their weapons. Quickly stopped the tape and removing it from the VCR, he glanced over at the pieces of the bowl that littered the other side of the room. Turning back to his friend, he placed a calming hand on his shoulder.
"No worries," he said with a cheerful smile, "I'll go get something to clean up the mess, we'll get you another bowl, and maybe we can find a movie without an alien invasion."
"Do you have a movie without an alien invasion?" said Raph with a snort. Mikey shot him a glare but found he had no retort. Try as he might, he actually couldn't think of a single movie in his collection that didn't involve aliens or monsters.
"We could watch one of mine," said Leo, "I've got some great martial arts movies."
Mikey frowned. His eldest brother's movies were anything but great, in his opinion, but it seemed he didn't have much choice. If it meant sitting through a snorefest to keep Leatherhead from demolishing his TV, he'd do it.
"Ok, but don't pick one that's too boring," he said as he jumped out of the pit and headed for the kitchen to grab the cleaning supplies.
As he watched his friend return, old rags, broom, and dust pan in hand, Leatherhead glumly walked over to the broken bowl.
"Forgive me," he said again as he held the dust pan so Mikey could sweep the pieces of the bowl into it, "I shall try to find a replacement for what I have broken."
"Don't sweat it, dude," replied the turtle as he leaned the broom against the wall and began wiping up the drops of soup. "Raph breaks stuff all the time."
The large alligator heard a "humph" sound from the older turtle and he found he couldn't hold back a grin. "If you insist."
When the two had finished cleaning up, they returned to the kitchen and dumped the contents of the dust pan in the trash. Filling a bowl with warm water and soap, they dropped the rags into it to allow them to soak. At last Mikey retrieved another bowl and poured the remaining soup into it, handing it to Leatherhead with a smile.
As they headed back out to the common area, they noticed that Leo was just putting a new movie into the VCR. By the look on Raph's face, he wasn't terribly thrilled with his older brother's selection. The eldest turtle greeted them with a smile.
"I found the perfect movie," he said excitedly as Leatherhead and Mikey sat down next to each other on the floor. "It's called 'White Belt, Black Heart', and it's about a ninja who's working as a spy to take down an evil organization, except his family doesn't know and thinks he's betrayed them. There's so much drama and tension and -"
Mikey yawned, already losing interest. "Drama and tension" generally meant a lot of talking without a lot of things happening. But he smiled regardless, happy to be home and allowing Leatherhead some much needed rest and relaxation.
As they all sat and watched the movie quietly, the large alligator found his eyelids drooping. Rarely had there been a moment in Dimension X that he felt truly safe. But now, surrounded by friends, he felt more at peace than he had in years. And as Michelangelo leaned up against him, a soft snore escaping from his mouth, he smiled and closed his eyes.
He could prepare for the coming invasion tomorrow. Right now he was going to rest and enjoy the company of those closest to him.
A/N: The last in my "3 a week for a month" writing exercise! Thanks to zephra85 on tumblr for the prompt - I had never written Leatherhead before, and I had a lot of fun with this. I'm honestly surprised I managed to crank out 12 fics in 4 weeks. I'm terrible at sticking to self made schedules, so thank you so much to everyone that reviewed/favorited/etc in the past month. It really helped keep me motivated! I feel I learned quite a lot from this, so hopefully it will help me put out longer, more polished stories in the future.
And as always, critics and grammar police appreciated!