Chapter 9 - "What on earth is that?"
Sunday had arrived and Donatello was scheduled to pick up their supplies at April's. He opened his closet to fetch his disguise, but as he reached inside, the coat accidentally fell off the hanger and landed on the dark floor of the closet. Don bent down to pick it up and as he did he discovered there was something else down there as well. He lifted his trench coat to unveil a DVD box underneath it, and before even reading the title on the cover he knew what it said.
"Leo," he called, still sitting on the floor with the DVD in one hand and his clothing in the other. "You might wanna come in here."
The oldest turtle, who had been on his was to the dojo to brush up on his katas, turned in the direction of Donatello's room and peeked inside the doorway. "What's up, Donnie?"
"You recognize this?" Don held up the DVD box for his brother to see.
Leo's eyes widened in joy and instantly rushed up to his hero and grabbed the movie. "Where did you find it?" he asked, while admiring the feel of 'Band of brothers' in his hands.
"Bottom of my closet," Don answered as he rose to his feet.
The joy in Leonardo's eyes vanished instantly to be replaced with anger.
"I'm guessing by the look on your face you didn't put it there," Donnie said, wincing at his older brother.
"Mikey.." Leo muttered, grabbing the box tighter.
"It's who I'd put my money on," Don agreed, while sliding his arms into the trench coat. "Just please don't go after him. The movie's back and everyone's happy."
Leo looked up with the complete opposite emotion on his features.
"Okay, so not everyone," Don sheepishly admitted and buttoned up his coat. "Just don't do anything, Leo. Can't ya just let this one slide?"
"This one?" Leo repeated, his eye ridges shooting up. "I've done nothing but keeping my mouth shut."
"While that's not entirely true, I guess you've been more patient than most people would've." Donnie reasoned and reached inside the closet to grab his fedora. "Look, just don't kill each other while I'm gone. Go watch the movie or something." He closed the closet and put on his hat before turning back to Leo. "All right?"
Leo's features remained stern, obviously not so crazy about the idea.
"All right?" Don repeated, boring his eyes into Leonardo's.
"All right," Leo gave in with a deep sigh. "I won't bring it up."
"Good," Donnie said and patted the not-so-happy turtle on his shoulder. "I'm countin' on both of you to still be alive when I get back."
Leo nodded and moved aside so Don could pass by him. He watched as Donatello headed up the stairs and climbed the exit ladder before he went out to the living room to put in the movie. He opened the DVD box to find a single disc in there - the special features disc. All five containing the episodes were conveniently still missing.
Inside the kitchen of a certain news reporter, Donatello sat by her bar-table, dropping toilet-paper into the paper bags lined up in front of him.
"Thanks for picking up all these stuff," he said, glancing at April's back while she searched her refrigerator for anything else that might belong to her reptilian friends... and their rat of a father, of course.
"Don't worry about it," April answered while grabbing some cheese from one of the shelves. "Besides.." She turned around to Donnie and dropped the yellow piece of grocery down one of the bags. "It's not like you're able to do much shopping on your own." A friendly smile curved her lips.
"Yeah well, thank God," Don praised, his dark brown eyes doing a three-sixty in their eye sockets. "Just imagine the things Mikey'd stuff our fridge with. Judging by the things he added to the supply list - behind my back, nonetheless - we'd all be too fat to even fit down the manholes."
April laughed at the image of four obese ninja turtles, squeezing their colossal butts through the manholes of New York's sewer system. She turned around to double-check the fridge for anything else of theirs. "Wouldn't that be a sight?" she mused, holding the refrigerator door open with her right arm stretched to its fullest potential. "So if you can't think of anything else.. I'd say that's about it." She glanced at Don over her shoulder.
Donatello peeked inside the bags, making sure he had everything he came for. "Looks like everything's here," he confirmed with his head down one of the bags.
April nodded and closed the door to the fridge. "Yeah, and about that list..." She turned back to her seated friend. "I hope you're not still mad at me for talking Splinter into putting you to work."
"Don't worry about it," Don said, waving off her comment. Although there had been a few times in doing his chores where he had cursed her once of twice. "It's only fair we clean up down there. Sides, I don't think we'll have to do it much longer." A hint of a smile pulled at the corner of his mouth as Don broke away from her eyes, secretly looking forward to that certain place in time.
"Oh?" April questioned with an arched eyebrow, causing Donnie to look back at her. "What makes you say that?" She leaned her lower arms on the bar-counter.
"I guess you could say that things haven't gone as smoothly as Splinter might've hoped," the turtle sheepishly admitted, folding his hands together. "We've probably caused more problems than we've solved, and the chores haven't exactly strengthened our brotherly bonds."
"Raph and Leo, huh?" April nodded in understanding, wincing a little at the thought of what those two might've done to each other.
"No, actually.. Leo and Mikey," Donnie corrected the brunette, who's eyebrows shot up in surprise. "Yeah, Mikey hasn't exactly been on his best manners." He nodded, fiddling with his fingers. "And Leo's the one who's been the most exposed to his pranks."
"What kind of pranks?" April asked worriedly, eyeing her green friend.
"The kind where Klunk's doo doo's end up on Leo's bed," he answered, painting a disgustingly vivid picture by using only one sentence.
"What?" April practically gasped. "No, he didn't," she said, half pleading, half demanding.
"Yeah," Donnie confirmed with a slow nod. "He did."
April looked away from his stare, trying to process the repelling information she had just been given. "I can't believe anyone's actually able to do anything like that. Even Mikey."
"Ask Leo," Don suggested, causing April to look back at him. "He's a believer."
April thoughtfully put her hand to her chin, covering half of her mouth. "I bet," she said, glancing at Donnie.
"Oh!" Don lit up at the memory of more gossip. "And just yesterday? Mikey hid Leo's DVD in my closet. Found it just before I left. Actually, it's the one he borrowed from you."
"'Band of brothers'?" April questioned, wondering why her creative little green buddy would put it in his brother's closet.
"Yeah, that's the one." Donatello nodded, moving on to answering the question that was plastered on her face. "He doesn't like Leo hogging the TV."
April nodded understandingly, studying Donnie as he seemed to board one of those train of thoughts he so often took off with. "What?" she asked, trying to pull some information out of him.
Don shook his head, still appearing to be deep in thought. "Leo seemed pretty mad when I left." He paused, as if for dramatic effect. He glanced at April, who's eyes urged him to continue. Once again he broke away from her curious gaze and stared into nothingness. "I just hope he's behaving himself."
Leonardo sat on his knees in front of Donatello's open closet and grabbed another half-dead toaster from inside it, one that Donnie had saved for the purpose of spare parts, just like the rest of the stuff he overpopulated his closet with. The blue masked turtle threw the piece of junk over his shoulder and onto the growing pile of broken machines and unfinished gadgets. The toaster made a crashing sound once it landed on top of it all, causing Klunk to rush out from underneath Don's desk, where he could usually hide in peace.
"Where issit?" Leo growled to himself, grabbing another UFG (unidentified flying gadget) and tossed over his shoulder. He was of course referring to the five still missing discs of 'Band of brothers' and it only made sense that they would be in his purple clad brother's closet, like the rest of the DVD's had been. And he couldn't exactly ask Michelangelo about it. Doing so he knew he would risk breaking his promise in not to kill him.
Once again he cursed himself for giving into Donatello's stupid agreement.
After ridding the closet of its last UFG, Leo had to face the fact that his missing episodes weren't there. He sighed in frustration and got up to his feet, brushing his knees free of dust and microscopic screws he'd been buried under. Once turning around tothe humongous pile of crap, his head tiredly fell backwards, thinking of all the time it would take him to clean up the mess. A spent hand reached up to rub his face, trying to bring some life to himself.
This had obviously not been a good idea.
Inside the kitchen Raphael was busy doing the dinner's dishes by the sink. He placed a clean plate to the side to dry and reached inside the dirty water for another item to scrub clean. A fork found its way into his grip and he quickly ran the dish brush over it, not so picky with the task. After washing it off under the tap, the newly washed fork slipped out of his wet grip and landed on the floor by his feet. He bent down with a grunt to reclaim it, only to be met with a nasty smell. He found his face inches away from some left over food on the floor by the trash cabinet. After quickly deciding it didn't look like the dinner he had served this evening, he rose to his fully length and turned around to the kitchen doorway.
"Leo!" he called, waiting for his brother's reply.
None came.
"Leo!" he yelled a second time, this time louder than before.
"What?" an irritated voice answered from inside one of the other sub cars.
"I got a job for ya," Raphael informed, returning to the dishes.
Leonardo appeared in the doorway, crossing his arms with a suspicious look on his face. "What kind of job?" he asked, causing Raph to spin around and look at him. "I've done my chores for the day."
" 'Parently not good enough," Raph said, stepping aside and motioning with his eyes to the spot on the floor.
"What're you talking about?" Leo wondered, standing too far away to see what Raphael was looking at.
"I dunno," Raph replied and crossed his arms on his plastron. "You tell me."
Leo walked up to the trash cabinet and bent down to look at the spot Raph was referring to. "What is that?" he wondered, wrinkling his beak in disgust. Even though he couldn't identify the smudge he could definitely smell it.
"Somethin' you forgot to clean up," Raphael answered, causing his brother to look up at him from where he stood bent.
Leo's face twisted in disapproval. "You're saying that's my problem?" He rose to look his younger brother in the eyes.
"You're the one wipin' the floors aroun' here, aren't ya?" Raph countered, challenging his brother's stare.
"Not when you spill dinner on the floor, I'm not," Leonardo argued, holding his brother's gaze and standing his ground.
"I didn't spill that," Raph objected, hastily pointing to the floor with his eyes before returning to the battle of the brothers' eyes.
"Then who did?" Leo asked, not backing down.
"I dunno," Raph shrugged. "Does that look like lasagne ta you?"
Leo parted from their staring contest and bent back down to the floor, inspecting the stain further. "Actually, no," he admitted. "What is that?" The shrivelled piece of food was covered in penicillin, making it very hard for the Fearless leader to identify it.
"I don't care. I'm not cleaning it up," Raphael informed his older brother, who had to cover his beak when inspecting the crime scene.
Leo looked up at Raph, glancing back down to the smudge again. "You think it's lunch?" he asked and rose back up to normal height.
An evil smile spread across Raph's face. "Could be..." he agreed.
They both turned their heads in the direction of the door, gathering air into their lungs before calling in the third party. "Mikey!"
It didn't take long for the youngest turtle to enter the kitchen. "What's up, bros?" he wondered, walking up to his older brothers.
"Spilling food much?" Leo asked, keeping his voice calm.
"Whaddaya mean?" Mikey wondered, furrowing his eye ridges in confusion.
"Yeah, that's right," Raphael filled in. "We know about yer little 'hit n' run' accident." He pointed to the stain on their kitchen floor.
"My hit and run?" Mike repeated, his eye ridges moving up a floor. He stepped up to investigate the spot on the floor that Raph was pointing to. He bent closer to get a better look at the surprisingly smelly stain. "What?" He looked up at the other two. "Ya think I did that?" His older brothers nodded. "I totally didn't," Mikey quickly objected. He was met by two stern faces. "Well, I didn't," he insisted.
"Then who do you suggest did?" Leonardo asked, still unconvinced of his little brother's words.
"That looks more like dinner, to me," Mike said, glancing at the turtle in red.
"Looks like dinna'?" Raph repeated, as though he had never heard anything as ridiculous before. "That's funny, cuz I don't rememba' servin' penicillin."
"So then what makes ya think it's lunch?" Michelangelo turned the question around, pointing to the subject stuck to the floor.
"Cause it's just like you to not clean it up," Leo pointed out, while trying to keep his promise about not killing Mikey.
"That's not fair," Mike protested, narrowing his eyes at Leo. "I've done lunch far better than you ever could."
Raphael snickered and sent his elbow into Leonardo's left side. "At least ye gotta give 'im that," he said, looking at his not-very-amused big brother.
"Very funny," Leo scolded Raphael before turning back to Mikey. "But the question still stands. Who's gonna mop it up?" The three brothers looked between each other, none of them stepping up for the job.
And like an answer from above, a voice called out to them from the living room. "Guys?"
Three evil smiles decorated the faces of the three brothers, while the forth appeared in the sub car doorway, hidden behind the grocery bags he carried in front of his plastron.
"Uhh.. a little help?" Donatello peeked out from behind one of the bags, a pleading look on his face.
Mikey and Leonardo stepped up to unload their personal supply deliverer, each of them grabbing a bag so that Don only had to carry one. They set the bags down on the kitchen table. Don took off his fedora and placed it on the table before he stared unpacking the bags.
Mikey and Raph quietly motioned for Leonardo to talk to Donnie. Leo's eye ridges rose in protest, wondering why he had to do it. Raph angrily held up the dish brush to smack Leo with it and Leo quickly moved aside, giving into their demands.
"Don..?" The oldest turtle said after a moment, causing his purple masked brother to look up from the bag with a loaf in one of his hands. "You take out the trash, right?" Leo carefully asked, secretly glancing at his other brothers.
"Yeeeaaah...?" Don answered, wondering where the question was leading.
"Good," Leo said with a nod. "Cause there's a little something over there that might've missed the bin." He pointed towards the mysterious spot on their kitchen floor.
Donatello put the loaf of bread on the table, suspiciously glancing at his strangly quiet siblings as he strolled up to the trash cabinet. He noticed the spot Leo was talking about and bent down closer to see what it was. Just like the others he was unable to identify it, however the smell definitely made itself known to him.
Don quickly bent back up, covering his beak from the stench. "What on earth is that?" he asked, looking in between the other three.
"Don't know," Leo hastily admitted. "But.. with being in charge of the garbage dumping and all, you should pick that up."
Don's eyes widened in shock of what he had just been told. "You're kidding," he protested. "I'm not touching that." He then looked at the other two, who even they seemed very eager for him to clean it up. "What? Y-You've just.. waited for me to get back, so any of you didn't have to do it?"
There was a slight moment of hesitation before three sets of heads nodded to affirm his statement.
Don let out a breath of disbelief, a tired smile playing on his lips while looking at his siblings. "No way," he objected, putting his right hand to his forehead. "I'm not cleaning it up. Besides, isn't that part of the 'wipe and sweep' job, Leo?" He turned to his brother in question, the other turtles following.
"What?" Leo turned to Mike and Raph for support. "So now it's my problem?"
"Majority rules," Raph said, a malicious smile curving his lips.
Leonardo shook his head in disbelief and turned to Michelangelo, who in response made a swabbing gesture with his hands, pretending to be wiping the floor.
"No," Leo protested. "It's not fair you ganging up on me like that."
"All right," Don said, as an idea struck him. He walked across the kitchen to the table where they had put all the paper bags. He reached inside one of them and brought out a package of spaghetti.
"What are you doing?" Mikey wondered, his curiosity about to overtake him.
Don simply ignored his brothers and ripped the package open, pulling out four strings of solid spaghetti. He broke them in half and dropped four halves back on the table. Then, hidden behind his shell, he mixed them up before he brought them back in his right hand for the others to see. Each straw appeared to be as long as every other. "Short one lose," Donnie said simply, holding them out for his siblings to each take one.
"Alright!" Mikey lit up. "Way to go, Einstein." He hurried up to pick a straw, getting the best chance of not having to clean up the stinky smudge.
Raph quickly snatched himself a straw, not wanting to be the last one out. Leo however, he sure took his sweet time when deciding between the final two. His hand slowly floated over the spaghetti strings, wagering back and forth with uncertainty.
"Oh for Christ's sake!" Donnie complained, causing Leo to draw back his hand in surprise. "Just pick one!"
The oldest turtle finally settled for the left, leaving Don with the last one to himself. The four ninjas inspected their straws as well as the others', before holding them out to measure who the loser would be.
"Well it's not mine," Raph declared, his straw two inches taller than the others.
"I think it's yours, Leo," Donnie finally decided, after having inspected each straw several times.
"What?" Leo outburst. "No way! Mikey's shorter than mine!" He held up his straw beside Michelangelo's and all four turtles moved in closer to be able to judge.
"No," Don mumbled, his eyes locked on the straws. "I'd say yours the shortest."
Mike chirped victoriously before sticking out his tongue to the blue clad loser.
"Fine," Leo mumbled, tossing his straw into the sink. "Who cares about this stupid game, anyway?" With three turtles giggling behind him, Leonardo exited the kitchen to fetch a bucket of water and the always so trustful mop.
Raphael returned to the dishes while Mikey offered to help Don pack up their food, mainly to see what his brother had brought home for him to eat when they weren't looking.
"So how's April?" Raph asked while scrubbing a glass.
"She's fine," Don answered as he went to put some milk in their fridge. "She wanted to know if we were still upset about her coming up with the list and all."
"Yeah.." Raph mumbled, washing the glass under the tap. "Bet Leo is."
Donnie snickered at the comment before closing the fridge and going back to the table, where Mike had his head down one of the bags, rummaging for anything and everything he could eat.
"Mikey!" Don chirped, pulling on his little brother's arm. "That's not helping."
"Where's the ice cream and pizza?" Michelangelo wondered, looking as if someone had just run over his cat.
"There is no ice cream and pizza," Donatello informed, pushing himself past Mikey to be able to reach inside the bag.
"What?" Mikey cried, almost on the verge of tears. "But I wrote it on the list."
"Yeah..." Don said, lifting up a bag of potatoes into his arms. "Not on my watch, buddy."
Donatello lazily dangled his legs over the edge of the roof top, eleven stories up, observing the calm city beneath him. Not much was out there this night. Nothing but the sound of a few cars that drove by from time to time, and the teenage gang that they had been watching for thirty minutes didn't seem up for any illegal activity, having only stood there on the side walk, talking.
He turned to Raphael on his left, who eagerly twirled one of his sais in his right hand, hungering for some action other than 'late night roof top stakeout.'
"Nothing's happening, Raph," Don sighed, leaning back on his hands.
"Ye don't know that," Raphael spat, turning to glare at him. "Those thugs could break into that hardware story any sec."
"Yeah?" Don questioned, raising an eye ridge. "I don't think it would take them thirty minutes to muster up the courage. Let's just go home." Don supported his weight on his left arm and rose to his feet.
"I knew you'd be a bore," Raph said, still not moving.
"I'm not a bore," Don objected, staring down at his older brother.
"Sure ye are," Raph looked up at him. "You've been blabberin' about goin' back eva' since we left the lair."
"I have not," Donnie protested, getting a little ticked off by the comment.
"Hey," Raph said, putting up his hands in defence. "I'm not stoppin' ye. If ya wanna leave - leave. I'll manage."
"Don't turn this around and make me look like the bad guy." Don accusingly pointed at his brother.
"I'm not," Raph said. "I'd be scared too if I'd been out past my curfew."
This got Don to sit back down, glaring at Raphael out of the corner of his eye, but not saying anything.
Raph only smiled to himself, proud over the fact that he outsmarted his braniac brother.Then again,reverse psychology seemed to work on everyone. Except for Splinter, of course.
Donatello returned to watching the teens across the street, fiddling with his thumb against the concrete surface of the roof.
I should've just swallowed my pride and left, he thought to himself, getting more and more bored by the second. After all, he had better things to do than baby-sit some kids.
"So what diddya think about Leo's session this mornin'?" Raphael asked, still not turning his head away from the teenage group.
Don spun his head around in surprise, having not expected his brother to speak. "I don't know," he said, turning back to looking at the teens. "Kind of boring, I suppose."
"Wasn't it?" Raph agreed, turning to look at Don, who met his gaze. "I mean, what happened ta Fun Leo?"
"Fun Leo?" Don repeated with a smile. "I haven't seen him since Mikey sobered." The two of them laughed a little, although quietly enough so the kids wouldn't be able to hear it.
"Man, I sure hope Splinter won't find out about us spikin' his water," Raph said, staring into the city night.
"Tell me about it," Don agreed, also turning to look ahead of him. "We'd be doing flips into our sixty's." Again they snickered, with the quiet night following afterwards.
"Guess them kids won't break into any stores t'night," Raph quietly admitted, rising to his feet.
Don wasn't late to follow, a small smile playing on his lips for being right.
Raphael stuck his sai back in his belt and looked up at his brother. "Why you so eager ta leave, anyway?" he wondered.
Don scratched himself behind his head. "Yeah, see I found this TV back at the junkyard, and I've been pretty set on fixing it."
"A TV, huh?" Raph asked, interested. "You gonna put it in yer room?" He started walking back the way they came.
"That's the idea," Donnie confirmed, walking next to him. "I'm kinda looking forward to not have to fight over the remote every time I don't wanna watch 'Ace Ventura: Pet Detective.'"
"Ya know you've always been my favorite brother, right?" Raphael said, putting his arm around Don's shoulders.
"Right.." Don mumbled, pushing Raph's arm off of himself.