prompt 150 - "reading by starlight". Rated PG-13 for language.


"Rowing down a riiiiiiiiverrrr! In the cold of the NIIIIGHT!" Michelangelo warbled on a ear-bleeding note, gliding the paddle through the chilly waters. "Because my brother-is-a-dumbass and got us-" he exploded in a classic Opera finish, "LOOOOST!"

His audience didn't clap. Donatello was reading a book and nonchalantly flipped a page. Maybe Leonardo sighed somewhere in there.

Guiding their river boat was getting boring, and so was entertaining his lackluster audience. "Hey, Captain of the good ship, Immutable Dreams, you still have April's present?"

From the other end of their makeshift flatboat, water steamed around Raph's hot ankles. "I can't hear you over the sound of bullshit and your godawful singing. Shut up!"

"Does that mean you still have the gift?"

"YES!" Raph's thunder ripped through the trees. Midnight flirted with their adventure now, and Leonardo checked his watch religiously. He admitted that it was nice to see the starlight, a welcome relief from the sewer darkness and bright New York lights. Curiously, he peeked over at Don, engrossed heavily in a book and wondered where his brother's mind was traveling; it certainly wasn't on the river with the rest of the crew.

Leo glanced back over the water, shifted his elbow off his propped knee. The cold suddenly crossed his path. "Mikey, you've asked him four times. I'm getting tired of hearing it, too."

Raph sloshed one of his legs as he whirled around to meet Mikey in the eye. "What the hell does immutable mean? Why am I even asking you? Don? What does it mean?"

Another page turned, Don licked his lips and didn't look up. "Constant. Regular. Homogenous."

Raph scoffed and flicked back to the river. He mumbled, "Whatever. Dick."

Leo saw the slow crawl of Don's eyes burning into Raph's shell. He fell a little on edge, paying close attention to the next series of events. He should try to save it before-

"I'll use it in a sentence: your immutable vocabulary is pathetic. So is your attitude. Read a fucking book."

A shark could have jumped out of the water and eaten off his feet, and Raph wouldn't have noticed. He was too busy gawking at his snappy brother. "Because you're my bro, I won't cave your beak in. Get back to your book, Einstein, and have a cup of what I gave to Mikey, too."

Leo leaped to his feet and dove between the two. "Alright, that's enough. Raph, now-"

"I'm sooooo scaaaaared!" Mikey drew in an encore, using the paddle as a microphone. "Oh, the green team was SHOPPING for their friend when the nasty Foot ruined their DAAAAY!"

"Seriously, Mikey, stop..." Leo's face waxed annoyance.

"I'll tell you a tale of glorious woe and the Foot decided to goooo... to Macy's but we all took a wrong turn and what the hell is going onnnnnn!" Mikey rocked the boat and did an air guitar impression.

"You're making the fish drown!" Raph screamed, clapping his hands over his ears. "Can you make your singing immutable? Did I use that right in a sentence, Teach?" He glared at Donatello, who shook his head and returned to the book.

Arching backwards like he was warbling his last song, Mikey continued, "STARLIGHT! It was Shania Starlight, the bottle all BEE-AUTIFUL and sparkled in the store light! And it made me think of a red head with a TEEE-URTLE fetish. Oh, what were we doing theeeeere?"

Reclaiming his lukewarm spot, Leo sighed and crossed his fingers that either they would reach home first or Mikey's vocal cords expired. All seemed quiet on the Raphael and Donatello front, too.