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( pizza convos and rat dads )
SOUNDS OF WHAT seemed to be jumbled attempts of explanations were abruptly thrusted at you from your position against a rusted staircase leading to the outside of your apartment building.
the vigilante karate turtles, whom you came to know as leonardo, raphael, donnatello, and michelangelo, were currently bestowing information regarding their existence upon your stunned figure, not seeming to notice the obvious look of bewilderment weaved within your features.
finally growing rather irritated at the lack of clear facts you were actually getting, you narrowed your gaze and stood from your spot atop the second to last step of the stairwell with a hand raised in confusion. "okay, stop, stop, stop, stop— just stop."
your voice prompted a sudden silence to fall over the teenagers, their eyes all baring into your own as you gazed down at the stenograph pad in your hand while lightly dragging your disheveled mechanical pencil over the words you had managed to scribble down.
"okay, you were real baby turtles," you started, your eyes still stuck to the paper pinched between your fingers as the four moved to sit down in their spots, a box of pizza you had purchased resting in the hands of leonardo. "who made contact with mystery ooze... and therefore... started to age from mutant- baby turtles to mutant... turtle... men... guys?"
"uh, turtle boys, actually," michelangelo chimed in, drumming on the material of his plastron in thought before his older brother cut in.
"i- i would say teens, y'know?" leo awkwardly quipped, holding a hand out in front of mikey to draw your attention toward his taller figure. "i would say cool teens."
his words elicited sounds of agreement from his brothers, donnie and raph adding their own thoughts to the summary of your words as you nodded with a smile.
"teenagers- teenagers!" you repeated, turning back to your notepad to scribble down the information. "i thought so- awesome, insane— well, uh, tell me more, obviously!"
pressing on the upper side of your mechanical pencil's eraser to access more lead, you looked back over to the replies with an eager excitement lacing the color of your irises. "i want to know everything about you! like- like, is there more of... you?"
"nope, just us," donnatello answered simply, watching with an interested smile as you moved to write more in your notebook.
"they are alone in the world," you murmured while you took down the note. "and, like, nobody's ever asked you about this? or- or talked to you about this?"
similar words of confirmation came from the colorful fighters in a plethora of replies, mikey's, "sometimes we pretend to be on wendy williams, but that's it," taking a larger precedence over the rest of the turtles' speech as your eyes trailed over each of them, pausing on the older blue boy.
"why- why're you writing all this down?" he questioned with a momentarily narrowed gaze, a small smile coming to rest over your lips at the way his eyebrows and mouth similarly carved downwards.
"oh! well, i'm a journalist," you explained, moving to sit back down on the stairs. "well, i- i want to be a journalist."
tucking your writing utensil behind the skin of your ear, you raised your eyebrows and held a hand out in front of you. "i'm interning at— ah, well, i'm applying to be an intern at channel 6– right now, i write for my... school paper."
"really?" leonardo gasped, a few splutters of astounded breath leaving his lips as he bashfully met your eyes. "i assumed you'd wanna be on camera... 'cause you have, like, a- a very camera-ready look!"
"nope! no— haha," you awkwardly denied, waving a dismissive hand around in front of you as you shook your head. "never on camera."
a small mutter of "oh-kay..." left the boy's lips as before you continued on with your answer.
you explained to the four teens that you were trying to scuff up information on the notorious villain superfly, that of who was on a recent crime wave and rampaging new york with all of his fly-ness, or something of the sort.
mentioning the up and coming curfew that the police were working to implement if the guy wasn't soon caught, which elicited a panicked announcement from
parents that prom would be canceled, you wanted to use your journalism skills for good; you wanted to bring in the justice.
"but this!" you paused, gesturing toward your stenograph pad and the boys in front of you. "teenage karate turtle boys— this is a pretty great story!"
"look, i- i don't know if we should," raphael spoke up, pushing himself up from the rough pavement.
"understandable," you muttered, lifting a finger to your chin. "but this- this is gold!"
"we were taught that humans would try to destroy us if they ever found out we ever existed," donnie added as him and the rest of his brothers joined their red counterpart in getting to their feet. "y'know? kill us, or put us in a lab and milk us!"
"what? i wouldn't milk you— you don't even have nipples," you added, attempting to sway their decision. "even if you did, i still wouldn't."
"look, very kind and pretty human woman," michelangelo started, earning a curt glare from his blue brother beside him. "i got a question, so... just be straight with me."
tucking your lips between your teeth, you raised an eyebrow in wonder of the ask, tilting your head slightly to the side as the orange-clad teen stepped forward.
"do you think there are more people like you, y'know, people who will accept us?" he questioned, a look of anticipatory hope crossing over him and his brothers' features as you moved to stand once more.
"uh, well, if i'm being honest," you began, pursing your lips in a way that leo found rather enchanting. "um, no- no, yeah, no, absolutely not— there's- there's no way."
the brothers all released sighs of built up exasperation, shaking their heads as they moved to walk away while expressing their presumed thoughts of the pessimistic human world.
"okay— wait, wait," you called, moving forward to pick up the half-done pizza box they had discarded to the floor. "i mean, the reason i'm not scared of you is, you know, you guys helped me out."
reaching out to grab the few final slices of the treat, the terrapins turned around and looked back toward you, curiously peering down at you.
"and if you hadn't, and i had just, like, stumbled across you?" you continued, "y-yeah i'd probably be a bit freaked out, y'know? maybe... maybe a bit disgusted."
drawing your attention away from the four, a light vibration sparked from a back pocket of your jeans as you handed the now-empty box over to raphael. "ah, sorry, my mom's texting."
"dad is texting us!" donnie exclaimed, pulling out his own device to click on the notification from their presumed caretaker. "he's freaking out a bit."
"well, uh, at least all parents are the same?" you offered with a small smile as you thumbed at your cell phone, meeting leonardo's stiff gaze.
"a hundred percent," he wearily agreed, returning your action with an increasingly strained sentiment as he gulped down his slice of pizza.
"yeah, for sure." mikey added.
"our dad is definitely not a giant rat," donnie attempted to dismissively proclaim with a nervous beam, prompting a doubtful eyebrow raise from your self.
"that makes me feel like he's a rat," you flatly stated before shaking the idea from your head. "well, i'll airdrop you my contact, and if you ever feel like you wanna come out into the world, or whatever, just... let me know?"
quickly climbing the section of stairs you were previously seated on, you reached the entryway to your apartment floor. "i would love to write a story about it, seriously."
locking eyes with leo for the final time that night, you paused, seemingly debating whether or not you wanted to say something before brushing the thought off.
lifting a hand to the knob of the creaky metal door, you stepped inside, tossing a small wave and a smile toward your newly acquired friends before letting the door shut curtly behind you. "good night!"
and making it to the door of your apartment, you couldn't fight against the millions of thoughts swarming around your head regarding new york's very own off-brand avengers.
sleep is for the weak, anyways.
⚔️