The Words That Hurt Me

Seven Truths

Leo stands at the stove, stirring a large pot. Donny floats above the scene, patting on a pair of bongos, which make no noise. April sits silently in the corner.

Mikey asks his brother what he's making. Leo's head turns backwards and answers: 'Turtle soup. But we didn't have any regular turtles, so I put Raph in the soup'

Mikey looked in the pot, and true to his words, Raph was in the soup. He looks up towards Mikey and says: 'Donny would be in here if he didn't cheat at rock-paper-scissors!'

.

It had been a week since Mikey had last seen Leatherhead.

While he had indeed forgot at first, he had procrastinated for another day before he and his brothers got wrapped up in a long mission. He did message Leatherhead a few times, who was as understanding as always.

While he attempted to plan what he wanted to say, GB pointed out that making a script may delay actually talking to him, rather than help. As long as he had an idea of what he wanted to say, it was better to wing it.

The idea made Mikey uncomfortable, knowing how wrong something could go without a plan. He stuck by that arguent until GB pointed out that a conversation isn't supposed to be a battle. Besides, sticking to a plan would only limit how much he opened up.

So, after the mission was finished, (busting a small gang distributing mutagen, where they found it nobody knew, which going to cause a lot headaches later), Mikey decided to just go for it with no further delay.

The turtle swiftly gathered items into his bag, just a few snacks and a new stuffed pet for Leatherhead, and grabbed his skateboard. He almost made it out the exit, before stopping and bee-lining for the kitchen.

Peering through the doorway, he spotted his red-clad brother seated at the table. He was leisurely reading a comic, gripping the edges harder than necessary, denting the paper.

Mikey strolled into the kitchen, ignoring his brother, opting to rifle through the cabinets. Out of the corner of his eye he saw Raph look towards him and set his comic down.

Turning from the cabinet, the turtle stretched and looked towards his brother.

"Man, that mission sucked." He roughly plopped down into a chair, tearing into a bag of chips. "Like, who spreads out their mutagen like that!"

Raph grunted. "The smart ones. Doesn't make it any easier for us though,"

Raph resumed reading his comic. Mikey observed his hands grip the comic. Tensions between Raph and Leo had been high for this mission, a disagreement on how careful they had to be.

"Was it just me or did Leo have a stick up his butt the whole time?"

Raph threw the comic down and slammed his fist on the table.

"He did! These were just some run-of-the-mill criminals who happened to stumble on some mutagen!" He leaned back in his chair and crossed his arms.

"I mean, c'mon! We fight the Krang with their alien technology, we fight the foot clan, Baxter Stockman! You'd think we could handle some stupid low-lives,"

He let out a heavy sigh, glaring up towards the ceiling.

"I mean, sure, 'never underestimate your enemy,' but seriously!?" He shifted uncomfortably in his seat.

"It like he thinks I'm- we're shell-less!"

His brother ran a hand over his face, before finally seeing Mikey's bag and board. He raised an eye ridge.