"Raph, don't let him through!"
"You're gaining, Leo!"
"Mikey, stop screaming in my ear!"
I laugh from where I'm laying across the couch, watching the boys go at it.
"3... 2... 1... Yes!" Donnie cheers as Leo wins the race on the screen, and another point for their team in the small tournament.
Mikey groans. "Can we switch partners?"
Raph glares annoyedly and opens his mouth to say something, but is cut off by the video game playing a little tune before flashing the race time results. Leo laughs and grips Raph's shoulder. "Aw, you were so close to my high score!"
Raph shrugs him off. "You try playing while big mouth over here is screaming in your ear every two seconds. I can see the screen, Mikey, we don't need a freakin' commentator!"
Mikey grins cheekily. "Sorry. I couldn't tell if you could see with that big bulging vein that always sticks out above your eyebrow when you get mad."
I join in the laughter with the others again. Donnie looks at me, still smiling. "Are you sure you don't wanna play, Y/n?"
I grin amusedly. "I think watching is simply entertainment enough."
Raph rolls his eyes at the others who laugh at him once again. "How long until you go back to school again?"
I playfully roll my eyes back at him as Leo lightly nudges him.
"What? I'm kidding."
Mikey twists himself on the couch so he's laying on his side. "Ugh, all this hardcore video gaming is making me hungry..."
Donnie leans back. "Everything makes you hungry, Mikey."
"Yeah, well, now I'm even more hungrier..."
Donnie sighs and pinches the bridge of his "nose" at his younger brother's response.
"Well, you're the chef. Get to cookin'." Raph orders as he leans back in the bean bag on the floor, resting his arms behind his head.
"I don't feel like iiiiiiiiit." He twists even more and hangs upside on the couch. "We're out of pizza and it's gonna take forever to make something else." He whines, but the louder sound of his stomach rumbling drowns him out. "See?! I'm so hungry I'm gonna scream...!"
"Stop exaggerating–"
"AAAAAAAHHHHHHHHH..." He lets out a long, whiny, and very annoying scream.
"Mikey, would you–"
"AAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHH!!!"
Raph finally slaps a hand over his mouth.
"Ok, ok! We get it. I'll make dinner. Deal?" Leo says and gets up, heading for the kitchen.
Just after he says that though, each of his brothers' eyes widen. Raph pulls his hand away from Mikey's mouth and turns to him as if their lives depend on Mikey making that meal. "Get in there and make dinner right now!"
"Don't worry about it," Leo insists. "I haven't cooked for us in a while anyway. Soup sound good?" He asks before disappearing into the kitchen. I sit up and hear a smacking sound.
"Ow! What?" Mikey rubs his head and sits up as well, rubbing his head.
"Great job. Now Leo's cooking dinner. Do you realize I'm still recovering from his last disaster?"
"Maybe it won't be so bad this time...?" The orange masked turtle guesses unsurely but hopefully.
"Are you kidding?" Raph scoffs. "The guy can't even make toast without burning it and the toaster too."
"I can agree with great confidence that that statement is correct," Donnie says.
"So now you gotta go in there and take over."
"Why me? Why don't one of you do it?"
"Fine." Raph looks at Donnie. "We'll put it to a vote."
"Mikey." They both say.
I stay silent from my spot on the couch, still confused as to why Leo wanting to cook soup is such a big deal.
"I want a recount!" Mikey begs. "Y/n didn't say anything! And neither did Master Splinter!"
"At least just go see what he's doing." Donnie suggests simply with a shrug.
With a long drawn out sigh, the youngest raises himself from the couch and trudges into his beloved kitchen. Only with much less glee than usual.
After a minute or so, after hearing some conversation and pots and pans being banged around, Mikey comes back with a defeated look. "It's over dudes. Dinner is definitely ruined."
"What's so wrong with his cooking anyway?" I finally ask.
Each of the three look at me without answering, as if they'd completely forgotten I was still sitting here. I wait awkwardly and uncomfortably. My eyes connect with green ones as someone finally responds.
"Pray you'll never have to find out."
"Guys, we've gotta do something, he's putting dinner and my kitchen in jeopardy!"
"Your kitchen?" Raph raises an eyebrow.
Mikey looks down at him on the floor with a serious face. "Face it, Raph. When it comes to cooking, I'm the only one in this family who can do it. Leo's just the worst at it."
Donnie scratches his cheek. "I feel weird saying it, but, Mikey has a point... Somebody's gotta talk to him."
And with that being said, they all pause, and look at me. My mouth drops open. "Why are you looking at me?"
"'Cause you're the girlfriend." Raph falsely states, making me blush. "And Mikey's incompetent."
"Hey!"
"I can't just go in there and tell him he's a terrible cook, I've never even had anything he's made..." I say defensively.
"Consider it a blessing, sister."
Donnie looks at me. "We're not saying you have to go right out and say that–"
"Though it would make things easier–"
"What we're saying," Donnie cuts back in, "is that we just want you to go in there and... help him out."
"Or convince him to give up on dinner altogether," Mikey adds helpfully.
"Yeah, that works too."
"... I don't have a choice in this do I?"
"Nope." They all confirm in unison.
I sigh and get up before making my way into the kitchen.
As soon as I walked in, it felt nothing like the kitchen. It felt more like I'd walked through a portal to the city dump. Pots and pans are scattered all over the counter, as well as completely random and unrelated food and ingredients. There are also bowls and other utensils messily sprawled everywhere. Now I can see what they meant... Leo is among all of the chaos, maneuvering his way through it. He puts a big soup bowl full of water on the stove and sets it to boil. Only he turned the knob for the wrong burner...
"Um, hey... How ya doin' in here?"
"Uh, fine." He replies, before something– I don't even know what– causes the kitchen alarm to randomly go off. He takes an oven mitt and starts to fan it.
"... Ya sure?"
"Yeah."
The alarm keeps going as a bare burner on the stove catches flame. Leo's eyes widen before he steps away from underneath the alarm, filling a nearby bowl with water and splashing it onto the flames.
I snicker a bit when the flames go out and then step forward, turning off the stove. "Do you even know how to make soup?"
"I thought I did..." He scratches the back of his neck and shakes his head. "I'll just get the cookbook." He starts to look for it in the cabinets. "Mikey! Where do you keep the cookbook?!"
There's a short pause before his answer comes. "You stay away from Eileen!"
Leo looks out towards the living room and then at me. "... The boy names his cookbooks..."
I laugh a little before remembering what I was sent in here for. "Do you want help?"
"No, no, no. It's my treat. Really," he responds before jumping from accidentally touching the hot burner that he just had to put out."Ow..." He mumbles and moves the still cold water from the stove.
"Uh, Fearless..." I try again but I'm cut off by the stove releasing a big cloud of black smoke. "I think you broke the stove..."
I look at him and he scratches his neck again, chuckling sheepishly before stopping and sighing dejectedly.
"Look I'm not a chef or anything, but just a small token of advice for the future... when the kitchen alarm knows there's gonna be a fire before it even happens... it's time to stop."
He chuckles emptily and looks around. "Yeah, I guess you're right..."
I smile a little. "I've never made soup either so, how about just a couple homemade pizzas?" Fearless looks away from the mess, back at me. "C'mon, I'll help, it'll be fun. I mean we've got no choice, you destroyed all the other ingredients," I joke with a gesture to the disaster area around us. Leo smiles a bit and nods. But first we dedicate the first ten minutes to cleaning up and putting away everything we didn't need. Which was most of what was already out.
I helped him by telling him what to get out and what to do. He gets a measuring cup out and measures one cup of water, pouring it into a bowl and putting it in the microwave. Thirty seconds later he takes it out and adds flour, olive oil, dry yeast, and salt to the bowl.
Adding the bowl to a mixture, we wait for it to turn to dough. Once it did he drops it down onto the counter where I'm sitting and I start to squish it with my hands until it's soft and elastic. Leo watches me intensely, watching my every move.
"Can you toss it?" He asks me, smiling.
"I can try." I chuckle.
I stretch the dough lightly in my hands before tossing it in the air with a spin and catching it easily.
"Have you done this before?" He asks. I shake my head and try it a few more times, almost dropping it once, before letting him try. The dough falls back down onto his head.
I start laughing. "You're a ninja, aren't you supposed to be good at catching stuff?"
He takes it off of his head. "Guess I just have bad luck with cooking."
"You're just now starting to figure that out?" I tease with a smirk. He chuckles, blush creeping onto his cheeks.
I open a can of tomato sauce before pouring it into a bowl and add salt, oregano and black pepper. While I was doing this he got out the cheese and started shredding it for the pizza.
When I finish he spreads the sauce onto the dough. We both add pepperoni and cheese together. I think it's pretty fun, doing this with him. Most of the time I don't usually enjoy cooking, always having to do so much work before I got to eat anything.
Leo then adds another layer of pepperoni. Chuckling, I watch as he slides the pizza into the 400° preheated oven. He sets the timer before turning back to the rest of the kitchen.
"And now, we get to clean again..."
I grin and turn my back, going ahead to start and clean everything up again. I grab the bowl with extra flour and turn around, not knowing Leo was right there behind me. Flour explodes between us, most of it landing on him. My mouth gapes open as he glares mischievously down at me.
"I am so sorry," I manage to get out without laughing.
From the corner of my eye, I notice that he grabs something. Next thing I know, flour is being poured over my head. I gasp from the unexpected powder, causing Leo to laugh.
"You are so mean!" I whine up at him.
That caused him to laugh harder so I grab a handful of flour and throw it back at him. Next thing I know we get into a full out flour fight, white getting all over and into my clothes. We both laugh loudly as we both attack and turn away to try and block each other's attacks. Leo suddenly wraps his arms around my waist and picks me up, slinging me over his shoulder. I squeal and drop the same bowl of flour onto the floor, laughing more.
"What are you two doing?"
The others stand in the doorway, staring at us. Leo sets me back down on my feet. We're both still laughing a bit and the others are still watching us expectantly, waiting for an answer.
I shrug and gesture to the new mess we made, as if it weren't obvious enough. "We're baking..."
• • •
After Leo and I had cleaned ourselves up, we joined the others who had already started on the homemade dish without us that was apparently ready. Splinter even came in after we did.
"Is that homemade pizza I smell?"
"Yeah, Sensei," Raph grins. "Leo made it."
The rat stops in his tracks before turning to a cabinet. "Perhaps I will just have herbal tea for dinner."
Leo sighs tiredly from his family. "Don't worry, Y/n did most of it."
"Well, I just helped..." I said a little quietly, blush probably seeping onto my face.
"Hm," Splinter grunts before walking back over to the table, cracking a nice smile. "Thank you both. It is not just everyday we get a home cooked meal."
Leo smiles up at his father, I smile a little sheepishly as well. He sits down and starts to eat with us.
"Yeah, thanks for savin– uh, I mean, making dinner, guys." Donnie corrects himself quickly then smiles nervously in order to cover up his mistake. I smile at him but try not laugh since Leo's right there sitting next to me.
"Mhm!" Mikey agrees enthusiastically, his mouth occupied with chewing the last of his slice. He swallows the last of his before letting out a loud belch. I cringe a little but don't say anything.
"Mikey," Leo says with a small glare at his brother. He makes a subtle gesture towards me that I still catch. I think he prefers Mikey's belches don't sound off in front of me.
"Oh– sorry." He says apologetically, his smile fading for a quick second, but coming back even bigger the next as he rushes across the kitchen and crushes me in a hug. "Thanks so much, Y/n!" He releases me and kisses my cheek. I hear a small growl immediately come from Leo's direction.
Mikey looks at him obliviously. "Oh, uh, sorry again," he says again before hugging Leo too. "You too, bro!" The youngest ninja then decides to give Leo a big kiss on his cheek as well before running off right after.
Leo rolls his eyes and shakes his head annoyedly at his brother's retreating figure.
• • •
Here's another adorable gift for the late update ⬇️ 😏 You're welcome 😂 Remember to vote if you enjoyed the chapter!))