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In the darkness of night, two teen turtles jump from building top to building top. The smaller leads the way with haste; the larger follows with watchful eyes, making sure no one sees the two. They get to the end of the row of buildings and stop. The chilled October breeze blows strong, making the red and orange mask tails flap in the wind.
The large turtle points. “There it is.”
The smaller nods.
Silently, using grappling hooks, they make their way down the building. The big turtle makes sure the coast is clear before they jump to the ground and run to their objective: a large, dome-like building with a multitude of windows. They make their way to the back of the building, to a door that was unlocked (just like their informer said it would be).
After soundlessly closing the door behind them, the two turtles move quickly to the largest room in the building. They open a glass door that leads to the main room; a room that has moisture floating heavily in the air. Different smells hit the noses of the turtles as they stand in the doorway.
They slowly creep into the room, glancing around, searching for any movement to show that they aren’t alone. They move further into the room, the minimal light from outside slowly getting dimmer as the sun got lower in the sky.
Suddenly, a twig snaps. Both turtles tense. They shift so they’re facing the noise, but they don’t see anything.
“False alarm?” the small turtle asks under his breath.
The larger was about to reply when the lights snapped on and a new voice cut him off.
“What do you two think you’re doing?”
Raph lets out a shriek and Mikey cries, “Omigosh!” in a tight voice.
They whirl around, facing the way that they came in.
…And they realize they left the door open.
The turtles sag in defeat.
“Hey, April.”
“Hello, Mikey,” she says with a tight-lipped smile. “Now, would one of you two bozos like to tell me why exactly y’all are here right now?”
“You said we could come—” Raph starts.
“I said you could come at 10:30!” April snaps. “So, why are y’all here at 9:45?”
“Sorry, April,” Raph says, rubbing his head sheepishly. “We’re just a little excited. We’ve never been able to pick pumpkins before…”
April looks at their apologetic faces and can’t help but give in. She sighs. “Fine, but I can’t be there to supervise you, so behave! I gotta go clean up around the vending machine. Some kid ate too many Cheese Puffs and, well, y’know.” She shudders just thinking about what she has to do.
“Didn’t you just start working here?” Mikey asks. “Why do they have you doing the gross jobs?”
“‘Tis the way of the world, Mike,” April groans. “New hires get all the jobs that no one else wants to do, ‘cause we can’t say no, or else we could get fired. My last job was a bust, so I need this job! And I can’t get fired – yet. So, if I can be able to trust you two, y’all can go pick some pumpkins without me supervising. Just don’t take too many, don’t wanna make the boss suspicious, y’know?”
Raph straightens himself and gives April a salute. “We’ll behave, Raph promises.”
Mikey copies his brother’s movements. “Yep, we can be trusted!”
April hesitates then sighs. “Fine, go. Oh, and try to avoid the cameras. I don’t wanna have to go through all the footage and delete y’all off it.”
“Ya got it,” Raph says, dropping his hand and moving toward the pumpkin area.
“Thanks, April!” Mikey waves over his shoulder as he follows after Raph.
April waves back before leaving, shoulders slumped as she thinks about how instead of picking pumpkins with her brothers, she has to clean up some kid’s vomit. Gross.
The turtles slip through the plants, making sure to stay away from cameras or at least stay in their blind spots.
“How big do ya think they’ll be?” Mikey asks excitedly. “Bigger than my head?”
Raph chuckles. “Maybe, we’ll just have to wait and see.”
Mikey speeds up, thinking of all the different sizes and shapes the pumpkins would be. In all their years of being mutated, none of the turtles have ever had the chance to pick and carve a pumpkin. Sure they’d seen them in people's windows and their doorways, but they never got to have their own. But now, for the first time ever, thanks to April and her ability to get fired from and hired for almost any job, the brothers are getting pumpkins, and Mikey can’t wait!
The box turtle moves around a large plant quickly and almost lets out a scream, but he covers his mouth before any sound can escape.
“What’s wrong?” Raph asks, worried.
Mikey’s forehead furrows then relaxes. He breathes out a sigh of relief as he bends over and puts his hands on his knees, collecting himself.
“Omigosh,” he breathes. “That decoration nearly scared me to death.”
Raph looks over his brother’s shell. Hanging in front of him is a large, fuzzy, fake spider.
Raph snickers. “For loving Halloween and autumn so much, you sure get scared of the decor easily.”
“I was not expecting a giant spider to be in the conservatory.”
Raph smiles as his little brother tries to slow his racing heart. Mikey has always loved autumn since they were little. He loves the bright colors and the holiday that involves eating tons of candy.
It wasn’t surprising to anyone when they were picking their headband colors and Mikey couldn’t decide between orange and yellow. He had made Raph flip a coin to decide which color he would go with.
It landed on heads, meaning that Mikey would have the yellow mask.
Mikey had made Raph flip the coin again.
Heads: yellow.
And again.
Heads: yellow.
And again.
Heads: yellow.
“Why do ya keep makin’ Raphie flip it?” tot Leo had asked.
“I like yellow,” little Mikey had explained, “but I have yellow spots. It’s too much yellow!”
“Then just use the orange one,” Donnie had suggested, already adjusting his purple band on his little head.
“But then I won’t be being fair to the yellow one!” Mikey cried.
“Let’s do this,” little Raph had suggested. “Raph’ll flip the coin without you lookin’ and you guess what it is. If ya get it right, ya use orange!”
Mikey rubbed his chin, then smiled wide. “Yeah! Let’s do that!”
“Okay, ready?”
Mikey nodded his head quickly.
Raph flipped the coin and covered it without letting Mikey see what face it landed on.
“Guess, guess, guess!” little Leo chanted while little Donnie watched the game from the corner of his eye.
Mikey shut his eyes and focused. “Heads! No, tails… No, heads, it’s heads!”
Raph peeked at the coin.
Tails: yellow.
“It’s heads!” Raph cheered, accidentally dropping the coin before anyone could see which side it had actually landed on.
“Yes!” Mikey threw up his hands and grabbed the orange mask, attempting to tie it behind his head himself. Leo quickly moved behind his baby brother, helping Mikey before he could fail at tying the knot.
Raph smiles as he thinks about that memory. To this day, he still hasn’t told his brothers that he lied about the coin. Usually, he’s a terrible liar and will spill whatever secrets he has in minutes, but this “lie” doesn’t make Raph feel bad. If he doesn’t tell the truth, no one gets hurt (well, maybe it’s unfair to the yellow band, but that’s in the past).
“Alright,” Mikey stands straight, “I’m good, let’s go!”
They continue on their way to the small pumpkin patch and just as they start wondering if it even exists, they spot the large, orange squashes.
“There they are!” Mikey squeals. He runs ahead and Raph laughs as he follows at a slower pace.
Mikey moves around quickly, looking at each pumpkin before moving on to look at the next.
“We have to get the perfect one for the lair,” Mikey mutters as he continues his search.
Raph is trying to keep up with his youngest brother, but he’s also struggling to not step on any of the pumpkins under him.
“Oh, look!” Mikey calls, pointing to his left.
Making sure he isn’t going to fall on the pumpkins, Raph follows his brother’s finger. There was a little section of pumpkins all by themselves. There was a sign next to them that read: Pre-picked Pumpkins!
The turtles made their way over to the secluded area.
“This’ll be easier than trying to get them off the stems,” Mikey claims.
Raph nods.
Once again, Mikey is running around looking at all the pumpkins as Raph follows behind, watching his brother as he jumps from pumpkin to pumpkin.
“Oh!” Mikey squeals. “Look at this one!” He grunts as he lifts a bright orange pumpkin and hands it over to Raph.
The red-clad turtle easily takes the large squash from his brother.
“Wait, no! This one!”
Mikey grabs another and hands it to Raph.
The snapper quickly sets down the pumpkin he was previously holding to make room for the new one.
Mikey continues to jump around as Raph hobbles behind, finding it hard to carry a pumpkin and focus on not stepping on any that were still on the ground. But when Raph looks at his brother, he stops worrying so much. The grin on Mikey’s face could light up a room – nah, forget a room, it could light up a whole building! Seeing his brother so high-spirited causes Raph to feel just as happy. He laughs as he chases his baby brother around, trading out the pumpkins whenever Mikey finds a better one. It was like trying to find the perfect temperature for soup, but with pumpkins. They all look the same to Raph, but he doesn’t say anything about it, knowing that getting the perfect pumpkin is special to his little brother.
Finally, the box turtle was able to decide which one was just right for the lair. He handed it to Raph.
“It’s perfect,” Mikey exclaims.
Raph nods his head in agreement.
“Y’all almost done in here?” a voice called.
“April!” Mikey shouts, jogging over to her. “We found the perfect pumpkin!”
“Mikey found the perfect pumpkin,” Raph laughed. “Raph was just along for the ride.”
“Well, I am the artist of the family,” Mikey says. “Which means I have an artistic eye, so I know which one will look great in the lair!”
“Can’t argue with that,” Raph agrees.
“Good,” April says. “I’m happy you could find a good one! But now y’all hafta go; I gotta close up. It’s already late and I better get home to Mayhem.”
“Of course,” Raph says with a nod. “Thank you again, April!”
“Yeah, thanks!” Mikey nods his head rapidly. “Super cool of you to let us do this!”
“Yeah, I know, I’m awesome,” April claims, a hand to her chest.
They say their final goodbyes and Raph and Mikey leave. Since it’s darker outside, they’re able to walk on the streets instead of jumping over the buildings. This makes it a lot easier for Raph, he isn’t sure he’d be able to jump around carrying the huge pumpkin.
.
They get back to the lair and call for their brothers.
“What’s up, mis hermanos?” Leo asks, coming around a corner.
Donnie is close behind his twin, scrolling through his phone.
“We got the pumpkin!” Mikey exclaims, making jazz hands in Raph’s direction as the eldest holds up the squash.
“Oooh, nice!” Leo exclaims. “It looks perfect!”
Donnie nods in agreement. “What do we do with it?”
“Um,” Mikey scratches his head. “Carve it? How do you carve a pumpkin?”
Donnie taps his phone at superspeed. He turns it around and shows his brothers a video of some humans sticking knives in their pumpkins, scooping out the guts, and carving faces into them.
Mikey winces and weakly says, “I don’t want to stab our pumpkin…”
“Well, there isn’t any other way to carve a pumpkin,” Donnie says plainly.
Raph taps his chin. “What if you didn’t have to carve it for it to have a face?”
“Whaddya mean?” Mikey asks while Leo pats his baby brother’s head in a comforting way.
“Like you said, you’re the artist of the family,” Raph explains. “Could you draw on the pumpkin instead?”
Mikey’s eyes get smaller as he thinks. “Drawing with markers won’t work, they’ll just rub off,” he thinks out loud, tapping his chin. “Crayons and colored pencils are out of the question… I could paint on the pumpkin!”
“Perfect!” Leo exclaims. “Whatcha gonna paint?”
“It’s a surprise,” Mikey says with a sly smile. He takes the pumpkin from Raph, a humph leaves his mouth as he shifts the weight of the pumpkin. “Don’t come in my room; no peeking!” Mikey orders as he quickly makes his way to his room.
When he gets inside, he places the pumpkin on the ground and closes the curtain that hangs in front of the entrance to his bedroom. The curtain – like his brothers’ – was placed outside his room by Splinter many years ago. They were for privacy, but the turtles barely ever actually use them.
Mikey grabs his paints and a cup of water. He sits in front of the pumpkin with his legs crossed. He got to work.
.
Almost half an hour passes when Mikey hears a knock outside his room.
“Hey, Mike,” Raph calls, “got some food for–”
“No disturbances!”
Raph sighs with a shake of his head. He knows how Mikey gets when he’s in the zone with an art project.
“Okay, bro,” Raph calls. “Raph’ll just leave it out here for ya. Promise you’ll eat some?”
“Yeah, yeah, sure. I promise.”
Raph shakes his head again as he walks away from his little brother’s room.
.
An hour passes and Mikey still hasn’t come out of his room.
“It’s getting late, should I go check on him?” Raph asks.
“He’s just gonna yell at you again,” Leo says.
The three older brothers were hanging out in the training-room-slash-garage. Raph was beating up a punching bag and the twins were working on their hand-to-hand combat together.
“I know, but I don’t want him to end up like Donnie.”
“Hey! I am right here!” Donnie exclaims, clumsily dodging a punch from his twin.
“Keep your head in the game, Don,” Leo says as he sweeps his leg, knocking his younger twin down.
“No offense, Donnie,” Raph says, holding his hands up in defense. “But you tend to get a bit carried away when you focus on something.”
“A bit?” Leo laughs. “He locked himself in his lab for over 24 hours once! Don’t you remember? You had to pry the door open and practically shove pizza down his throat.”
“You didn’t have to shove it down my throat, y’know,” Donnie comments.
“You were surviving off of coffee,” Raph deadpans. “You needed some kind of food in ya!”
Donnie shrugs. “I do my best work when I only drink coffee and have minimal sleep.”
“No,” Leo says, “you become delirious and think of random things that you somehow are able to make.”
“I know,” Donnie gloats. “I’m a genius.”
“I’m gonna go check on Mikey,” Raph says as Leo helps Donnie to his feet.
“Okay, but don’t blame me when he started shouting at you to go away!” the slider calls as his brother walks away.
When Raph gets to Mikey’s room, the first thing he notices is the plate still full of food outside the curtain. Raph sighs.
“Mike,” he calls, knocking softly. “Ya hafta eat something, buddy.”
When he doesn’t get a response, Raph knocks again.
“Mikey? You okay in there?”
Still no answer.
Strange…
“I’m coming in,” he warns.
When he pushes the curtain open, the first thing that Raph sees is his little brother curled into a ball on the ground, fast asleep with a smile on his face.
Raph chuckles.
This doofus, he thinks, making his way over to his brother.
Raph bends down and gently grabs Mikey, lifting him up carefully. He places his sleeping brother in his hammock and covers him with a bright orange blanket.
As he turns to leave, Raph can’t help but look at the pumpkin. He loses his thoughts and words the moment his eyes land on it. Painted on the flattest side of the pumpkin in a family portrait. Somehow, Mikey was able to paint an amazing masterpiece on the lumpy texture of the squash.
In the picture, Mikey was in the middle, smiling, resting his chin and folded hands on their father’s head. Splinter was smiling with his eyes closed and his hands behind his back. Donnie was standing on Mikey’s right, an elbow resting on Mikey’s shoulder with his signature emotionless-bad-boy smirk on his face. Leo was on the other side of him, an arm wrapped around his youngest brother and his tongue sticking out. Raph was standing behind them all with his hands on his hips, grinning widely.
Raph turns back to look at Mikey asleep in his hammock.
“You truly are talented, little brother,” he says softly.
Raph isn’t sure if he imagined it, but he could swear that Mikey’s smile grew a tiny bit.
Noticing that the paint brushes were cleaned and placed to the side, next to a crumpled-up paper towel, Raph knows that it means Mikey is done with his painting. The large turtle carefully held the pumpkin, making sure to not touch the painted side, and quietly left Mikey’s room.
.
Mikey stretches as he slowly wakes up, pushing the blanket off of his face. The hammock underneath him sways from the movement. Groggily, Mikey steadies himself before the hammock can throw him on the ground – that’s happened too many times.
“How did I get up here?” Mikey asks no one. “I thought I fell asleep on the ground… The ground. Why was I on the ground? Art. Painting?” Mikey rubs his eyes, trying to remember what he was doing before he had fallen asleep. Then it hits him. “The pumpkin!” He quickly looks around his room, searching for his lumpy canvas, but it was nowhere to be seen.
Raph probably put me in my hammock, Mikey thinks, untangling his legs from the orange blanket. He probably saw that the pumpkin was finished!
Mikey jumps out of the hammock gracefully. “I wonder where he put it…”
As he makes his way out of his room, Mikey hears voices from the kitchen.
That’s weird.
Usually, Mikey is the first one to wake up.
“I guess I used a lot of brain power to focus on the painting,” Mikey reasons. “I must’ve been really tired.”
He continues to the kitchen until he sees his family crowded around the table. They’re all talking in hushed, excited voices.
“What’s going on?” Mikey asks as he enters the room.
“Good morning, my son,” Splinter says.
“Well look who finally woke up,” Leo comments with a grin as he spins around. “Good morning, sleeping beauty.”
“Har har.” Mikey smiles. “What time is it anyway?”
“Almost noon,” Donnie says, checking his phone.
“Oh, wow,” Mikey exclaims. “I really did sleep in. Oh, shoot! Breakfast! Sorry about that.” He rubs his neck sheepishly.
It’s a known fact in the family that Mikey is the only one with any kind of talent in the kitchen. The others are hopeless with anything that doesn’t include reheating. That’s why he’s always awake before anyone else in the sewers. He has to make them food, or else they would starve. And Mikey can’t have that happen, who else would he force to try his new recipes?
“It’s fine,” Raph assures. “We just had some reheated pizza.”
“That’s not a very good breakfast,” Mikey says with a judging frown.
“Well, when someone uses all their energy to paint a masterpiece,” Leo says, “it’s expected that that someone would need to sleep longer. Get more brain juices.”
“Though crudely worded, Leon is correct,” Donnie says. “It’s good you slept for so long. You needed it after making this.”
Mikey finally realizes that the thing that had all of their attention earlier was the pumpkin. It’s carefully set as a centerpiece for the table, with his painting on full display.
It looks even better in the light.
“You guys really like it?” Mikey asks, although he already knows the answer.
“Dude, of course!” Leo exclaims. “How could we not? It’s amazing!”
“Leo’s right,” Raph agrees. “This is awesome!”
Donnie nods. “I’m amazed at how much detail you could fit on such a small canvas. And a misshapen one at that.”
“You truly are talented, my son,” Splinter compliments.
“Aw, thanks guys!” Mikey says. “Now, I owe you a meal. I’ll make a big lunch for us!”
“You can make something easy,” Raph says. “You did just wake up.”
“Compromise,” Mikey says. “We’ll have ramen. A big but simple meal.”
“Sounds perfect,” Splinter comments, and his brothers all agree.
“Great, now get out of my kitchen,” Mikey orders firmly.
“Yes, chief. Thank you, chief,” Leo says with a salute.
Mikey scoffs with a smile.
Donnie smacks the back of Leo’s head. “Shut up, knucklehead.”
“Hey, Mikey thinks I’m funny!”
“Michael thinks lots of things are funny.”
Their bickering fades as they get further away.
“Good luck with the food,” Splinter says, walking away also. “I have a show to get back to.”
Now it’s just Raph and Mikey.
“Well, I should let you get to work,” Raph says, turning to leave.
“Raph, wait.”
The large turtle pauses and turns back. “Yes?”
“Thanks for going to the pumpkin patch with me,” Mikey says with a smile. “And thanks for tucking me in last night. Sorry I was so snappy.”
“It’s fine,” Raph laughs. “I know how you and Donnie can get when you’re in the zone.”
“You wanna stay?” Mikey asks. “I could use someone to talk to while I cook.”
“I thought Chief Mikey ordered everyone out of the kitchen,” Raph teases.
“Yeah, well, you’re an exception,” Mikey says with a wink. “Don’t tell Leo and Donnie.”
Raph puts a hand over his heart. “I’d never dream of it.”
The two turtles talked and laughed about whatever they could think of until lunch was ready.
The family sat down and as they ate their noodles, they all admired their new pumpkin centerpiece.