Day 1 - Snowing

Christmas was always so beautiful in New York. It brought a sense of pure tranquillity to the air, something that wasn't common in the slightest in this city. The usual din of the streets was reduced to nothing more than the soft crunching of snow, and the perpetual glare of lights died down to a faint glow. It was truly a peaceful time of year.

...Kind of.

"Come on, Raph!" Mikey cried out, half gleefully, half pleadingly, as he attempted to squirm away from his brother's single-handed iron arm-lock, "It was just a bit of snow!"

"I'll give you a bit of snow!" the older brother seethed, scooping up a particularly brown pile of the stuff with his free hand, before smashing it full force into his younger brother's face, grinning at the high-pitched squeal that sounded a second later. The squeal reverberated over the entire length of the park, and Leo sighed in disdain as it reached his ears for the fifth time. April stood not far from him, grinning at his reaction to his brothers' capering. Donnie was next to her, trying to hide his amusement underneath his woolly purple cap as he heard Mikey scream again.

"Are you sure you guys are actually ninjas?"

Leo turned his head to the red-haired girl as she spoke, giving her an incredulous look, "I sometimes wonder myself. I wouldn't be surprised if they've woken up all the Kraang in the city by now," he shifted uncomfortably at the thought, "Are you sure we won't be discovered here?"

"Positive." April replied, her grin growing wider, "What? Don't tell me you doubt the disguises I hooked you up with?"

Leo managed a small smirk, reaching up to his head to feel the soft fabric of the Space Heroes hat April had bought for him. He had to admit, it was pretty cool, not to mention warm. And it covered a good part of his head, meaning he'd be a bit less obvious from afar. His brothers too, sported similar get-ups, all courtesy of April. Donnie wore a purple cap and scarf, both engraved with elements of the 'Periodic Table' (whatever that is), Mikey, suitably, had a ridiculous looking light-up Santa hat and a fluffy beard to go with, and Raph...well he had...a turtle shaped hat, most likely for young children, which April undoubtedly picked on purpose to annoy him.

Of course, these 'disguises' wouldn't be enough to keep them hidden. They all still had giant shells sticking out of their backs after all, and despite April's best efforts, there was no way of covering them up without them looking odd.

"No! Of course not!" he said after a while, his gaze shifting down to her own 'disguise' of sorts, "Well...that is...unless you wanted to go out looking like a giant lemon."

"Hey!" the girl fumed, kicking a wave of freezing cold snow in Leo's direction which he dodged easily, laughing as he did.

It was true, she did look like a giant lemon, and she knew it. Of course, it was no choice of hers. Her aunt had apparently forced her to wear six layers of a multitude of different types of yellow clothing before she would even let her open her window. Six-Layers.

"Well it's not like there's anything wrong with lemons." Donnie began, noticing April's dismay, "They're useful in a variety of ways, including the production of citric acid and-" Leo groaned as Donnie kicked into gear, knowing his brother had no intention of stopping on his own accord, especially since April was there, though she didn't seem to be paying much attention to him.

He was about to jump on his younger brother to shut him up, when all of a sudden a massive snowball cannonballed its way straight into Donnie's chest, sending him reeling backwards onto the cold ground with a soft squelch of sleet and a yelp of surprise. Mikey materialised not soon after, grinning from ear to ear as he stared down at his victim in pure delight. "Gotcha."

Leo could see that April was trying to suppress the bellowing laughter that was building in her throat, really trying, but the sight of Donnie sprawled out on the snow with a flabbergasted look on his face was too much for her to handle, he too was having a hard time keeping a straight face. She grabbed onto him for support as the laughing fit began. He could see that Donnie was trying to glare at them, but every time he tried it always melted away into a toothy grin, and eventually laughter, which in turn made April laugh even harder.

"I don't know what you two are laughing about!" Mikey chided mischievously as he turned to face them, patting a mound of snow into shape in preparation for his next attack, "No one's safe from Dr Prankenstein!"

And as the cheers of joy and shock that followed slowly began to fade under an avalanche of crystal white snow, one thing could be said.

Christmas in New York was always beautiful.

So I thought I'd try out some TMNT (2012) fanfiction for the first time, starting with a TMNT Advent Calendar I happened upon on tumblr. I don't really know how this went, but I do know that it took FAR TOO LONG. I'm going to have to cut down the next one so it doesn't take 4 hours ._.

FYI, these stories are supposed to be up everyday, but if you haven't guessed by now my ability to write to a deadline is...questionable, so don't expect them to be up on time.

Anyway, I do not own the turtles or anything related to them.