shelless-turtles

[shelless-turtles]

A Stitch in Time (Saves Nine) — Chapter 1

Chapter 1 on ao3 here

Fandom: ROTTMNT

Characters: Leo, Mikey, Donnie, & April

Rating: General Audiences

Words: ~5,000

Leo, Mikey, and Donnie traverse the Hidden City to find a gift for their brother. Everything goes as planned... until it doesn’t.

Not that Leo will ever admit it.

Leo stepped out of the portal, shivering slightly, his skin unaccustomed to the chilly dampness of the Hidden City. The foggy atmosphere clung to his scales like thick droplets. Despite the warm orange hues streaking the sky, mixing with blue and bathing the Hidden City in a deep sunrise, that didn’t change the fact that it was still a cave. A very, very large one—sure, but still a damp, overall way-too-wet cave.

It was the kind of place you’d write a review of 3 out of 5 stars for on yahoo. Bright and colorful but way too chilly of an atmosphere.

Yōkai shuffled about the streets and, although it was busy, it was quieter than the last time Leo had been here. Some were in a hurry, but most were slow and methodical in their steps, sure of where they needed to be and not in a rush to get there.

Leo heard both of his brothers stumble out of the portal and he turned to greet them, grinning. “Hey, see you made it, safe and sound. Nice, nice.”

Mikey looked around in wonder and oh—he’d never actually been into the Hidden City itself until now, had he? Besides Baron Draxum’s now defunct and destroyed lair, of course (acclaim went to him and his brothers for that), his brothers had rarely actually ventured out into Mystic places. And, well, it wasn’t like Draxum’s lair even counted, with how far away it was from the actual heart of the city.

“Ohmigosh… so many yōkai! It’s like Run of the Mill Pizza but wayyyyy bigger,” Mikey said in awe, stretching his hands out to emphasize just how massive the city was.

Leo nodded and smiled, glad to see his brother enjoying the sights. There were a lot of Yōkai, he had to admit. A pretty normal day in the Hidden City probably, but new to Mikey. It makes sense that he’d be excited. “Pretty cool, right?”

“Yeah!” Mikey’s hands flicked outwards in excitement.

Donnie coughed, causing Leo's attention to snap towards him. He looked slightly bored, his eyebrows arching up in that self-important way he did sometimes. Leo could see him typing something into his wrist trackpad. “Ahem—while it's great to sightsee and perhaps we could come back again sometime to do just that, maybe we should commence with our mission? Operation: Stim Toy? Seeing as that’s why we came here in the first place?”

“Oh, right!” Mikey said, jerking to a stop in the middle of his stimming, hands frozen in air. He slid a hand over his face to switch into “serious mode,” making Leo snort. Mikey squinted and looked around. “So—uh—what’s the first thing we’re looking for? I know we’re going to find a stim toy for Raph but… how are we gonna find it?”

Leo draped an arm dramatically over Mikey and pointed towards a towering building with pink-tinted windows. “Why do you think I portaled us right next to the library, bro?”

“That’s—oh! That’s the library?” Mikey said, awestruck.

“Probably.” Leo shrugged.

While he wasn’t entirely certain, in order to portal he did need to have a destination in mind. And. Well. It definitely looked imposing enough to be it in addition to the—oh wow, was their sign misspelled?

Leo squinted. It was.

Now that was hilarious and definitely one of the most ironic things he had ever seen in all his fourteen years of life.

“What Leo means to say is that that is indeed the library, considering the large engraved sign that says MYSTIC LIBRARY in all caps.” Donnie paused. And blinked. Leo could practically see him mentally running through calculations in his head as he realized that it didn’t actually say that. “Or... it should.”

Leo spun towards Donnie and leaned onto his brother's shell. A mischievous grin unfurled across his face.

“Ah yes. The Mystic Librarby. My favorite place to go for completely guaranteed and accurate info,” Leo said, his voice bordering on dramatic mockery.

Read the rest on ao3.

[shelless-turtles]

Smile ! 📸🍉

[shelless-turtles]

I cannot bring myself to watch other iterations of tmnt partially bc I love rise April too much and her friendship with Donnie

[shelless-turtles]

Overwhelmed.

[shelless-turtles]

Hueso calling Leo pepino is one of my favorite things. It’s so funny to me that he calls him a cucumber. And I mean- he’s not wrong.

At first it was sort of like an insult but it morphed into an affectionate term. I just think it’s sweet.

[shelless-turtles]

Lost and Found

Fic on ao3 here

Fandom: ROTTMNT

Characters: April, Splinter, Raph, Donnie, Leo, Mikey

Rating: General Audiences

Words: ~8,500

April finds herself lost in sewers and happens across some unlikely family.

April liked to think she was brave.

Her parents always said that her stubbornness and how she jumped into things at a moment’s notice was because of that. She was strong and smart and good at sports. She knew how to change things to work to her advantage and everyone who knew her would agree that she absolutely wrecked at baseball.

But right now, a mile beneath New York at six’o’clock at night, in the dampest and darkest sewers she could’ve found herself, all for a dare from Kendra, she felt less than brave. If she was gonna be honest… she felt kind of scared.

Not that scared, of course. But still scared enough for chills to run up her spine from the sounds of the sewer: the grimy, burbling water, the scampering of rats and mice and whatever else lived down in these sewers; anything was prone to make her start and jump up like that frog she’d found at the park. She held the flashlight close to her body, careful not to trip on any of the muck.

Usually she liked exploring. She did it all the time when she’d gotten lost in the woods after running off and honestly? It’s not like anyone could blame her with how boring the scouts’ trips were. That was fun. Exploring was supposed to be fun. But it had been hours since she’d arrived down here. And somewhere along the way her mental map had gotten all twisted up like a wet rag that had been squeezed and let out to dry in the shape of a funnel cake. Eventually, she didn’t know where she was anymore.

Maybe she should’ve brought an actual map or something. Oh, she’d brought some things, like her crayons and her flashlight. She had some carrot sticks too and of course her phone that her dad always told her to keep on her in case of an emergency but—as it turned out—it wasn’t much help if there wasn’t any service to begin with. And wasn’t that just the way of the ol’ O’Neil luck.

She groaned. Ohhhh her parents were so gonna kill her.

Read the rest on ao3!

[shelless-turtles]

It’s them! I think that they might like to do woodwork.

[shelless-turtles]

A pumpkin frog in a sweater—what could be better?

[shelless-turtles]

Washed Out Markers

Fic on ao3 here

Fandom: ROTTMNT

Characters: Donnie & Splinter

Rating: General Audiences

Words: ~500

Splinter may be old and no longer the person that he once was, but that didn’t mean he didn’t have anything left to give to his sons.

“Hey, Papa? Do you think I look like Lou Jitsu?”

He had been watching Scorpion Against the World III: A Spy’s Dagger. The scorpion brought its pincer down right as Splinter clicked the pause button, making it freeze in time. He leaned down to look at Donatello from his chair. The turtle tot held a black marker in his small hand, looking up at him hopefully.

And on his face… were two big, black eyebrows where there should be none. They were scribbled on with the markings of a child’s unsteady hand, but Splinter could see the intent and love put behind them.

“Oh… my son.” Splinter slid off of his chair. Donatello was getting tall—by now his son must nearly be up to his nose. Splinter wondered just how large his boys would get by the time they stopped growing. As tall as he once was, perhaps…?

“I… tried my best to look like him... but I’m not sure how much it worked. I don’t think I did it right.” Donatello looked down, grabbing the marker and twisting it between his two hands. “Do you… um, could I get asses- assesti- assistance?”

He fumbled over his last word as if trying to remember how to pronounce it. It made Splinter smile to see Purple growing his vocabulary. It felt like just yesterday that he had been teaching him to read. He crouched down to meet his son’s eyes. “I would be happy to help you, Donatello.”

Purple gleamed. His smile was much brighter than any of the trophies Splinter had collected or awards he had been given in his lifetime. It shone like a garden statue on a sunny day—or the dance floor on which he had gotten to know the sixth to last love of his life on. His choices in life may have not been the best… but if it led him to this moment, and raising his sons, he couldn’t say he regretted them.

A hand tugged on his arm twice in succession. Donnie looked at him, worried. “Dad, you’re crying. Why are you crying?” he asked. “Are you sad? Did I make you hurt? Can I fix it?”

Splinter blinked.

He sniffed, shaking his head. No, of course his boy hadn’t done anything wrong. He reached for his son’s hand and squeezed it in comfort. “No, Purple, you did not make me hurt. Sometimes… when you’re very happy, you cry. It’s not bad and is not something to be fixed. I’m just happy to see you, is all.”

His son hesitated, unsure if to accept that as an answer, but eventually nodded. “...Okay.”

Splinter reached for the marker and gently took it from Donatello’s shaky and small hands, uncapping the lid as he did so.

“Here, let me help.”

He may have washed out years ago, but he still had plenty of ink left to give.