"Are you boys sure you're okay to go out on your own?" The rat man named Splinter asked one of his youngest sons with a worried expression on his face. Splinter's four mutant turtle sons are going to go for groceries without him for the first time.
"We're sure, Dad, no need to worry!" The mutant turtle in blue, Leonardo, says to his father. He adjusts the straps along his plastron that hold the sheaths of his twin katanas against his carapace. The oldest of the brothers, Raphael, comes up behind him, walking carefreely while stretching his arms.
"Don't worry, we got this! It's just groceries." Raph says as he ruffles his younger brother's nonexistent hair, causing Lee to stick his tongue out at Raph in a playful manner.
"Yeah! Just groceries!" The brother who wears orange, Michelangelo, exclaims as he struggles to put on his signature plaid jacket. As he struggles, the other youngest, Donatello, walks up to their older brother and helps him get the jacket on, their leg braces clanking softly against the ground. Those leg braces are one of the reasons Splinter is so worried about his sons going to the surface, they can easily get caught with how loud those things can get at times.
"Plus! If things do go wrong-" Lee starts but gets interrupted immediately by Mike who has finally succeeded in getting his jacket on with help from Don. "Which won't happen, by the way!"
"Raphie will be there, so it'll be fine." Lee gestures to Raph who pulls out a confident expression. Splinter sighs but accepts the fact that his sons will be fine without him being there, he has been training the art of ninjutsu for years now.
"Just be careful, okay?" Splinter speaks softly, and all of his sons reply with affirmations, except Don who is too engrossed with his phone. With that, he gives the grocery list to the blue-clad turtle and watches his sons leave the lair with a worried expression.
____
The four brothers stood atop the roof of the apartment building across from the store they planned on getting their groceries from, reviewing the grocery list that had been given to them.
"Rice, udon noodles, tofu, basic vegetables, dashi, miso, mentsuyu, rice vinegar, and sesame oil." Lee finishes reading off the list again, this time ensuring that Raph and Mike make sure that Don has finished their stretches before reading it aloud.
"You sure everything's is in there?" Raph questioned, peering over Leonardo's shoulder at the list.
"It should have almost everything this time, right, Don?" Leonardo turns his gaze to Donatello for an answer, who is currently sitting on the ground, sulking about the stretches.
"I hacked the security cameras inside and outside the store to make sure that they had everything stocked," Don replies in their usual monotone voice.
"But what if something we need is bought out?" Raphael asks, hints of panic creeping seeping into his tone, though he attempts to keep his tough demeanor.
"I don't fucking know, cry?" Don retorts sarcastically, though, only their family can tell. Mike and Lee chuckle at their response, but Raph just sighs in response.
"Let's go." Raph starts to walk over to the edge of the building, signaling for his brothers to do the same. In unison, the four leap from the building, their forms disappearing as they sneakily head toward the store.
The four brothers slip inside the store without deduction, using the cover of night to do so, mainly to avoid humans seeing them. They had stolen groceries from this specific store so much, they practically knew like the back of their hand. They were like the local cryptids for the night shift in the store. They have also caused a bad reputation for the store because of how much they steal from it.
The brothers get the things they need without getting caught by the late-night shoppers and the staff on the night shift inside the store, and they grab a few extra things. Raphael grabbed a pack of disposable water bottles, they still have enough to last until the next grocery run but it's better to be safe than sorry. Miceloangleo grabbed chips, candy, and some soda, Mike just couldn't help the allure of such snacks. Leonardo grabbed some cleaning supplies, wanting to make sure that the lair was as clean as it could be. Donatello grabbed strawberry Poptarts, extra lettuce, and plastic grocery bags. They grabbed the bags because they knew that their brothers would forget about it, but the Poptarts and lettuce were a cause for confusion for the rest of the brothers.
The brothers proceed to go to the roof they were on previously to put the groceries they had stolen in the bags they also stole.
"That bag is for condiments, that bag is for the main ingredients of the meals, that one is vegetables, and that one is extra stuff!" Leo assigned the bags to hold certain groceries as he and his brothers packed them with those specific groceries.
"Bags! What would Lee do without them?" Raph playfully ribbed Lee as he carefully placed the vegetables in their bag. "Why do we have extra lettuce, again?" He inquires, picking up said extra lettuce.
"It's for Lee," Donatello explains as they organize the condiments in their bag. Lee turns his gaze over to Don with an expression of appreciation dawning on his face.
"Why do you always grab something extra for Lee but never me and Raphie!?" Mike melodramatically asks, putting a hand to his heart for the effect. Having completed the bag for the main ingredients and was now messing around with his brothers and his nunchucks.
"Are either of you my twin?" Don asks, already knowing the answer.
"No, but we're still your brothers!"
"You and Raph don't get special privileges then."
Mike makes a noise of hurt, goes over to Raph, and leans against him.
"Can you believe this! Our little brother truly doesn't care and loves us!" Mike says as he places a hand on his forehead.
"That's not what I said," Don states, slightly offended by Michelangelo's theatrics.
Raph pushes Mike off of him, Which causes Mike to react with an offended gasp and a comment about how Raph doesn't love him either. Then he pushes Raph back. And Raph pushes Mike. That cycle of playful shoves continues until Don and Lee are done packing the bags assigned to them, and with them being trained in the art of ninjutsu, they start to use their weapons in this mock fight.
Donatello grabs out their phone and starts to record the mock fight. Leonardo thinks this fake fight is amusing at first but as it continues, he gets more worried that with all the movements Raph and Mikey are making, people will start to notice them up there.
"Hey, maybe you guys should calm this down a little..." Leo manages to say before Mike's nunchuck hits one of Raph's sai too hard and it flies out of his hand. All four watched as the sai bounced off the ground, fell off the side of the building into the alley next to it, and presumably almost hit someone from the yell that could be heard.
All four brothers freeze up at first but then Lee runs over to the side of the building where the sai fell and looks down to see who yelled. At the bottom of the alley, was a dark-skinned woman, with her hair probably in some form of braided knots for her hairstyle, wearing a yellow coat dress thing. is staring at the sai that is on the ground in front of her.
"Are you okay!?" Leo yells down at her, causing her to look up at him. Donnie walks up to stand next to Lee, their leg braces clinking against the roof.
"Physically, I'm fine." The woman yells back. "But, what the hell are you doin' up there? And with weapons!?" When she finishes speaking, Raph starts to jump down to get his sai. Much to Leo's protests.
When Raph is almost to the ground, Mike decides to go down too, then Don, then Leo. When Leo hits the ground, Raph has picked the sai and is having a staring contest with the woman, well, she's more likely to be a teenager after closer inspection, the coat thing is just a long coat with the bunched-up end of her shorts visible, and her hair seemed to be in the Braided Bantu Knots style with two braids that frame her face going down to her shoulders.
"I'm so sorry about that ma'am! It was a mistake!" Leo bows his head to apologize to the girl.
"What are you guys? Lizardmen?" She seemed more focused on what the four are than Leo apologizing.
"We're turtles," Raph says, having a threatening look on his face.
"Well... you guys look cool. So blue guy!" She points to Leo. "Why not, in a way to apologize, we become friends! I'm April, April O'Neil!" The brothers share a confused glance at each other before April brings her hand out for a handshake. Which Lee hesitantly shakes.
"I'm Leonardo..." He says as the handshake ends. "That's Raphael, that's Michelangelo, and that's Donatello." The three waves at her when introduced. "And, again, I'm so sorry about the sai."
"Don't worry about it. It wasn't even yours! And, you guys didn't get to choose if it almost hit me or not, fate decided that." She says reassuringly. At this point, Don has gone on their phone and stopped paying attention.
"You sure? I can get Dad to punish Raphie if you want!" Mike playfully jokes, trying to lighten the mood, causing Raph to nudge him with his elbow.
"No need for that, fate just hates me because I'm a lesbian." April jokes, which gets a smile out of Michelangelo.
"Fuck them, gays," Don says, they either didn't realize April had said the joke about being a lesbian or forgot to think before speaking, because they had said that in a sarcastic way that only their family could tell was sarcastic. April wasn't a part of the Family, and to her, Don had just said that in a deadpan manner and meant every word.
April's hands had darted to her bat that she had dropped when the sai fell. Pulled it up, and was ready to swing.
Raphael quickly acted when he noticed. He swiftly moves behind April and wraps his arms around her, making it so she can't reach Don. As Raph does this, Michelangelo pulls Don away from April, making sure that the youngest doesn't get hurt.
Leonardo, trying to make sure that his twin doesn't get hurt and that they get to keep the first human friend a friend for longer than a minute, goes to talk April out of hitting Don with her bat and also to explain what they meant. With his voice as calm and steady as he can, he says: "Don was being sarcastic, that's their humor. Also, their voice is always pretty monotone. I swear to you that they were just joking."
April, lowers the bat hesitantly, still tense. She read Leo's expression to try to figure out if he was lying or not. But the fact that he wasn't using he/him for Don made it seem more plausible to her.
Don hadn't realized that he was about to be hit at bat, they were too engrossed in their phone to notice.
"You sure?" April asks, still skeptical about Don.
"We're sure," Raph says, starting to release April from his grip. April sighs and swings her bat over her shoulder.
"What are you even doing out this late, anyways?" Mike says, trying to change the subject.
"I was at my friend's place, but his dad got back and he told me to leave," April explains nonchalantly, watching Don as she does so.
"We should probably get back to the lair, Dad will get worried." Leo reminds the other brothers when April mentions her friend's dad.
"Before you four go," April takes her phone out of her pocket. "Give me your guy's number so we can talk." The three of the four brothers paying attention share a glazen before Mike pulls out his phone from his jacket's pocket, and he and April exchange numbers. Then the brothers jump back up to the roof, grab the bags of groceries, and head back home to the lair.
_____
"Dad, we're back!" Michelangelo shouts out when the four brothers return to their home. Splinter had been meditating during the time his sons were gone, stirs at the shouting of his second oldest. He slowly pushes himself up from his seated position on the floor of the training room and leaves to the makeshift kitchen where his sons had set the bags on the counter to organize the groceries inside where they go inside the kitchen.