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"I'm going topside, boys. Be very careful while I am gone; do not play in the sewers, make sure to have your weapons nearby should anyone bad sneak in, and remember to brush your teeth if I'm not back by bedtime."
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"Let's play hide and seek!" Leo suggested, trying to break the silence among his brothers. They'd been sitting at the bottom of the skate ramps; well, half-built skate ramps, they were still working on them, for a long time. It didn't really matter, Leo just couldn't deal with silence much longer.
'We're not allowed to play, remember?' Donnie's text-to-speech app proclaimed. Leo rolled his eyes, walking up to his twin.
"Dad said no playing in the sewers, not the lair. Besides, he's mostly worried 'cause Mikey's small. But, he knows everywhere in the lair so it should be fine." Leo smiled proudly, while Mikey and Raph nodded.
"Yeah! Let's play!" Raph said excitedly. Mikey took a pause from his climbing around on his brother's shell to nod as well.
"I'm not a baby anymore, I can play big kid games!" Leo looked at Donnie smugly, who rolled his eyes before nodding, agreeing to play.
'Mikey, do not get in any weird tiny crevice where we can't find you. If you do, no bedtime stories for a week.' Mikey gasped loudly at this, but agreed to not hide ultra-stealth.
"I get to be seeker!" Leo exclaimed. Everyone nodded and started dispersing while Leo counted.
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"-Three, two, one. Ready or not, here I come!" Leo uncovered his eyes and looked around the area everyone had just been in. Nothing seemed out of the ordinary, so he moved onto the arcade, Mikey's favorite place to hide. Leo didn't flip on the lights for the room, Mikey wasn't scared of the dark, so he could have purposely left them off. No sounds seemed to be coming from anywhere in the room, so Leo was about to write it off.
Then, he heard a small noise, barely audible. He stepped quietly as he made his way to the far corner of the room, where stood a tall arcade cabinet. However, there was just enough space for a tiny turtle behind it. Leo poked his head in the space between the wall and cabinet and found what he needed; Mikey in his shell, very quietly laughing to himself. Leo poked his side, to which Mikey yelped.
A small head poked out of the shell and Leo stuck out his tongue in victory. After a couple of moments, Leo managed to take out Mikey from his crevice and carry his brother, still in shell. "Hey Leo, have you found Raph?" An echoey voice from the shell asked.
"Nuh uh. I was gonna try to find him next." Leo tucked his brother under his arm and left the arcade. Next stop, the garage.
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Nearly 40 minutes later and no sign of Raph anywhere. Mikey had since left his shell to walk normally again and the searching duo managed to pick up Donnie along the way.
'Where's Raph?' Donnie's app rang out. The computer voice was monotone, but his face was scrunched in concern. Leo patted his twin's back, continuing forward in the search.
"I'm sure he's fine Dee. It's weird he can hide so well when he's so much bigger than us, but we'll find him." The silence among the trio continued, only interrupted by Mikey's humming. But, Leo had a sudden epiphany.
"Red Robin!" Leo yelled out suddenly, much to the confusion of his brothers. However, a nod and a wink told them Leo had a plan. Leo got his response when he heard a "Yum!" in Raph's voice. Grinning, Leo grabbed his brothers and dragged them up to where he heard the shout.
Raph was hiding in his room, predictably, but Leo and Mikey hadn't been able to find him when they searched earlier. With the new clue, however, the search started anew. Mikey looked in the cabinets and wardrobe, while Leo looked through the bed and stuffed animal collection. Nothing.
"Where is he!" Mikey yelled in frustration. Leo held his brother's shoulder, equally dismayed. Donnie, however, simply rolled his eyes. He went over to the bed and moved aside the blanket covering the visible side of the bed. Leo and Mikey were both confused, all that was under the bed was solid wood. Donnie just lifted up the mattress, which revealed Raph.
"You guys couldn't find me very easy this time, could ya?" Raph grinned proudly, holding one of his teddys in his arms. Leo and Mikey stared in wonder while Donnie had a smug grin on his face.
"How'd you know about that, Dee?" Mikey asked.
'Had to help Raph moved around blankets and stuffed animals the other day. He showed me cause it's cool.'
Raph nodded, the turned to Leo. "It's my turn to be seeker now! I was the last to be found." Leo nodded, and the four went back down to the skate ramp.
Everyone eventually had a turn at being seeker, and by the time Splinter got home, they were all passed out on the skate ramp, cuddled in a turtle pile. A blanket was laid atop them and Splinter dragged in a beanbag to sleep in the room with his sons.
'They'll see the neat things I found tomorrow,' he thought to himself before falling asleep, content his sons had a fun day and playing together. They would get nagged at for not brushing their teeth, but semantics.