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“Cowabunga!”
Leo’s arms cross over his head, but it does nothing to protect him from the waves flung up from Raph and Mikey’s combo-cannonball. Donnie shrieks. Leo peeks over to see him shaking his soaked glasses. The slider laughs. Donnie shoots him a glare.
“Hey, it’s your fault that you didn’t take them off!” Leo says, folding his arms.
Donnie mumbles something as he trudges over to the side of the makeshift pool. He holds out his glasses for April to take, and she puts them as far away from the splash zone as possible. She comes back with her little camera in hand, a grin on her face.
“Who’s ready to test out the underwater pictures?” she exclaims.
Mikey gasps from his perch atop Raph’s shell. “You were serious?” He glances towards Donnie. “But Donnie said it was dangerous!”
“And that hasn’t changed!” Donnie lifts his shoulders, folds his arms, and turns his head— the perfect picture of ‘I know everything (but everyone knows that he doesn’t)’ “Water and electrical circuitry will never mix. If you insist on bringing it in anyways,” he hefts himself out of the pool, “I will be here, and safe from the electricity-conducting free ions of H2O.” He takes on the ‘I know everything (but again, he doesn’t)’ pose again, his narrower-than-usual eyes fixed on April.
April knocks him with an elbow, and he grumbles. “I tested it beforehand,” she says. “I stuck it under the sink. It works perfectly fine! Water-proof technology is completely real.” She approaches the pool. “Watch.”
“WAIT!” Leo cries, and she stops, raising an eyebrow at him. He grins. “You should jump in and record it!”
“Oooh— yeah! You gotta! You gotta! You gotta!” Mikey cries, clapping his hands.
Raph eagerly nods. “Go big or go home!”
“Great idea!” April presses a few buttons on her camera, and Leo hears it jingle to life.
“When you all get electrically fried, I will tell your blackened corpses, ‘I told you so’,” Donnie says.
Leo groans. He loves his twin to death, but OH GREAT PIZZA SUPREME IN THE SKY can he be such a kill-joy.
April holds her camera up, pointing it at the pool “We’re rolling in three… two… one…! April O’Neil here, taking my camera on an exclusive underwater jump!”
“Leo, come here!” Raph taps his shoulder, and Leo backs up to stand besides him. Mikey’s gotten down from his shell, but still clings to his shoulder as he’s still too short to touch the bottom. Raph gives her a thumbs up. “The pool’s all yours, April!”
“Alright!” April bends her knees. Donnie covers his eyes. She whoops and leaps up. Leo, Raph, and Mikey cheer and wave at the camera. She hits the water with a splash nowhere near as deadly as Raph’s.
The three of them stare at the dark shape below the water, hopefully capturing killer footage. The shape grows closer. The camera pokes out of the water, nearly smacking Raph in the face. April follows after it with a gasp and a whoop. She blinks fiercely, wiping her eyes with the back of her hand.
“It’s still recording!” She pushes a button, and it beeps. “I gotta see that!”
They crowd around to watch it. The underwater footage isn’t too great. It’s murky to the point where there’s nothing to see. Honestly, Leo doesn’t care. The camera survived the dive and that means that Donnie’s wrong.
“HA! Take that, Don!” Leo yells, jabbing a finger over at where Donnie is pouting.
He shoots Leo a glare and turns away with an, “Angry huff!”
“You gotta record more!” Mikey cries, grabbing onto April. “Maybe you could try and get Raph and Leo underwater! And Donnie, if he’s up to it! Maybe even me!”
“Ooh, we can make a scary movie, with human-eating turtles!” April says.
“Human-eating?” Raph blinks, his face falling. “Why human-eating? Can’t we be nic—?”
“Nah, horror is more fun.”
“I vote in favor of April!” Leo says, slinging an arm around her shoulders (and giving Mikey a few pats on the head).
“Me too! Me too!” Mikey says.
Raph sighs, his shoulders slumping.
But even he admits he had some fun recording it. It ends up turning into a game, which Donnie decides to join in, on who can drag April down. There are rules, of course, to make it harder (and to take away Raph’s obvious advantage); they have to tap her forehead before they take her, and the months she’s spent with them has led to her picking up quite a few ninja skills. Even in the water, at a disadvantage, she fends them off well. Until, finally, Donnie manages to snag her.
Leo’s ready to call round two when the pair surface, but April’s coughing fit keeps him silent. Donnie’s fingertips rub at his arm, and he stares down at the water.
“Are you okay?” Raph asks, surfacing next to her. He pats her back.
Leo feels Mikey grab onto him.
April gasps, then shakes her head. “I’m fine.” She prods Donnie, who flinches and rubs where she touched. “Someone forgot I can’t hold my breath for as long as him.”
“Sorry,” Donnie mumbles.
“Don’t do it again, and I’ll accept that apology.”
“Would this be a bad time to suggest a round two?” Leo asks.
April shrugs. “I mean, I had a blast until the end. Maybe in a bit.” She moves to lean against the wall. She lifts her camera, attached to her wrist by a strap, out of the water. Leo hears the start of the movie-turned game. Mikey swims over to watch it with her. Donnie’s disappeared, probably gone under the water. Raph’s just awkwardly standing in the middle of the pool, twiddling his fingers.
Leo paddles around the perimeter. He tries to do what Donnie does, and make up a big cool solo adventure story in his head. But like all of the ‘Donatello head games’, he grows bored fast. There’s gotta be something they could do, right? Something a little calmer since April’s still recovering from Donnie’s accidental drowning attempt. She could never hold her breath as long as—
WAIT.
“GUYS!” Leo shouts, slamming his palms into the water. All attention whips to him (except the still underwater Donnie). “We should have a holding our breath contest! April can be the judge since she’d lose anyways.”
Mikey gasps. “That’s so horrible!” He nuzzles his cheek to April’s, adjusting his grip to a full-on hug. “April can do whatever we do!”
April snorts. “No, Leo’s right. There’s no way I could keep up with you guys for this. I’m human, and you’re turtles. Both our species have advantages. You guys can hold your breath longer, and I have five fingers.” She lifts a hand and wiggles said fingers.
“I mean, we manage pretty well with just three,” Leo says, holding both his hands up. “Two more would just get in the way.”
April rolls her eyes. “Whatever. Someone get Donnie, and then we can get this contest started.”
“On it.” Raph ducks under the water. It takes a few moments for him and Donnie to surface. “We’re doing a holding-your-breath contest,” he says to the softshell. “Just us turtles. April’s gonna keep track.”
Donnie nods. He looks over to April. “You can use your camera to keep track of the time. I want an exact timestamp of when I come up— that means minutes, seconds, and milliseconds.”
Leo would’ve groaned if he wasn’t curious about himself. He doesn’t care about seconds or *shudders* milliseconds, but minutes would be cool. The most he thinks he’s gone was… five minutes?
April just gives Donnie a thumbs up. She gestures at each of them. “All of you, stand in a line!”
Leo splashes over next to Raph. Donnie surfaces next to him. Mikey paddles over and grabs onto Raph’s other side. April grins and presses record on the camera. “April O’Neil is BACK! Here to record the epic competition of which turtle can stay under the longest! From left to right, we have Donatello, the spiny softshell.” She pauses. “Psst! Donnie! Say something cool!”
“Something cool,” Donnie parrots.
Leo snickers and nudges his twin.
Donnie grumbles. “I wasn’t prepared…”
“It’s okay, Dee!” April shifts the camera slightly. “Here’s Leonardo, the red-eared slider!”
Leo puts his hand on his chin, grinning widely. “AKA, the champion of this contest.”
“Biologically speaking, Raph’s gonna wi—”
Leo slaps a hand over Donnie’s annoying know-it-all mouth. “I’ll at least beat YOU.”
“They’re talking about Raphael, a very friendly alligator snapping turtle!”
Leo doesn’t know what Raph says for his intro, because Donnie bites his finger. He yelps and pulls away. It’s not bleeding, but it still stings. He sends a big splash of water in revenge. Donnie ducks under the water to avoid it. Leo feels him grab at his ankles, and he backpedals to try and kick his brother in the face. He makes his mark, and Donnie lunges out of the water, hissing.
“Guys!” Raph yells, barging between them. “Stop it!”
“Save your energy and breath for the contest!” Mikey snaps, leaning over to give each twin a gentle, but firm all the same, smack on the head. He turns to the camera. “Do me, do me!”
“Of course! That’s Michelangelo, a box turtle! We’re not sure if he’s the desert or ornate kind.”
“I like to think it’s ornate!” Mikey says. “It sounds pretty, and I have pretty orange spots.” He turns his arm to show some of them off. “I like to think of them as paint spots. Just without all the little splash dots. I’m an artist in self-training!”
“A very good artist in self-training,” April says. “Okay. The rules are simple! Everyone is to take a deep breath and go under, and you’re to come back up when you need to. Don’t push yourself ’till you pass out. The competition’s not that important. Everyone agree!”
Leo doesn’t like how she looks at him specifically. He agrees to the terms along with his brothers. He doesn’t even make a snide remark! He glances at Donnie. His only goal is to beat his twin. Donnie’s skinny little lungs can’t hold as much air as his. Raph’s definitely gonna win, but Leon’s snagging second place. It’ll be easy!
“Okay! On three, go under! One! Two!”
Leo sucks in a breath. He hears Raph and Mikey do the same.
“Three!”
Leo dives under. His third eyelid slides into place. While the water is murky, he can still pick out the shapes of his brothers. He turns to Donnie, who’s getting comfortable; he’s crossing his legs and resting his hands on his knees.
“You’re going down,” Leo signs.
Donnie meets his eyes. “We will see.”
Time drags by. A couple times, April dives under and brings the camera to them. Leo grows bored fast. He occupies himself by swimming laps around the pool. He tries to nag Raph into a game of chase, but is denied for whatever stupid reason. Raph’s the most inefficient in sign, so he can’t even tell him. Mikey tries to play, but he’s never been a strong swimmer.
This applies to his lungs, too. Though, being the littlest may also have something to do with it. He’s the first to surface. He doesn’t stay in the pool, either, if April’s continued solo visits are anything to prove.
When Leo’s lungs start to hurt, he goes to Donnie. He stares at him. His twin hasn’t moved, with the exception of his fingers, tapping a rhythm just above his knees. Leo glares at him the best he can. Come on. Run out of air. You know you’re going to.
Eventually, Donnie’s fingers still. He stares at Leo for a few moments, then signs, “What are you looking at me for?”
“Are you ready to—” Leo points up towards the surface. He’s not quite sure how to communicate his actual message. Donnie should get it. He’s smart.
“I’m OK, thanks. Are you running out of breath?”
“N-A-H, I could go on four ever.”
Donnie signs something back at him. Maybe it’s “forever”. Maybe it’s something else. He better not have said something nasty, or he’ll tattle on Raph. He makes a note of the sign and promises himself to repeat it later. Specifically, where April can see it.
His lungs are on fire. Surely, little Donnie is suffering more than he is? The whole ‘zen mode’ is just a front. He’ll dart for the surface any second. Any second now. Aaaaany se—come on, Donnie. Leo’s vision’s going fuzzy—
His self-preservation kicks in, and he shoots for the surface. He gasps and sucks in breath after breath.
“Twenty-six minutes and thirty-five seconds!” April cries.
Leo shoots a glare down at Donnie. “I’m gonna kill him if he doesn’t die in two seconds.”
April sighs. “Come on, Leo.”
“How’d he beat me?!” Leo yells, swinging a hand through the water. “There’s no way he should be able to win! He’s smaller and shouldn’t be able to hold his breath for as long! That’s not fair!”
“Smaller by what, two inches?”
“Two inches is two inches. He’s skinnier.”
“Not that much skinner.”
“But he is!”
April groans.
“Relax, Leo! At least you aren’t in last,” Mikey says, kicking his feet through the water. He taps the edge of the pool. “Besides, you always beat him in sports. Let him be better than you at one thing.”
Leo flung his hands up. “I did! He’s the faster swimmer. I’ve let that slide!”
Mikey gives him a disapproving frown.
Leo lets his arms drop. He folds them and slogs over to a wall, slumping against it.
Mikey soon engages him in a conversation about a recent art piece he’s been working on. It’s a Jupiter Jim x Lou Jitsu crossover poster, where the two heroes team up against the combined forces of the Mummy Ninjas and Robo-Vampires. It ends up being less about the art piece and more about the idea— it has so much epic potential, it can’t just be limited to a poster!
Leo decides that him and Mikey will try and get Donnie to write that for them, so they start scheming on how to accomplish that. While the softshell has claimed to have given up writing as a hobby, surely they can stoke his passion enough for him to do it one more time. Leo would make the idea a reality… but eh, he doesn’t have the patience, or the talent. Writing is a nerd thing, and Donnie’s proven to be a great writer. Leo still has Lou Jitsu Meets the Turtle Ninjas— it’s the only book he’ll ever read (and Donnie hasn’t come after him for it yet).
Their scheming is startled to an end when Raph bursts out of the water with a loud gasp.
“Wow!” April cries. “Just two seconds more, and you would’ve gotten to forty minutes!”
Raph gives her a thumbs-up, preoccupied with wheezing.
“Forty minutes! That’s crazy!” Mikey cries, clapping his hands. “That’s so much more than Leo!”
Wait a minute. “Where’s Donnie?!”
“Don— oh no!” Raph grabs his own head.
Leo dives under the water. He has to shove the thoughts of his twin, drowned and waterlogged, just to try and prove he’s better at something as stupid as holding his bre—
There.
Donnie’s exactly as he left him. Nearly. He’s stretched his legs out, but he seems… fine. Content, Leo almost dares to say.
“Are you OK?” Leo signs.
“Yes,” Donnie signs. “I’m doing just great. That is not…” He finger spells something that Leo can’t piece together. “Just admit that you lost. Get over it.”
“I know I lost, but you beat R-A-P-H.”
Donnie jumps a little. His eyes whip over to where Raph had been. He says nothing, his gaze not leaving the spot.
Leo taps his leg to get his attention back. Donnie takes a swipe at him, but Leo pulls back. “You don’t feel bad at all?”
“No. Why would I? R-A-P-H can deal with it.”
Leo face-palms. “No, I mean, you don’t feel bad? In your body?”
Donnie stares at him for a moment, blinking slowly. “No. I could stay here for… probably a while longer. How long has it been?”
“A long time.”
“I want a number.”
“I don’t know numbers.”
“Tell A-P-R-I-L to bring me her C-A-M-E-R-A.”
Leo does just that. April complies. Donnie’s eyes widen when he sees it.
“I guess I’m really just the best in the water,” he signs. “I still want to see how long I can go. You can all do something else if you want. I’ll move out of the way.”
Leo nods, then leaves him be. He’s all too eager to forget about Donnie’s increasingly impressive time, and a game sounds so much better. They go for another round of Human-Eating Turtles. This time, Leo’s victorious. Part way through the game, the camera runs out of storage. Euugh boi. Donnie won’t be pleased about that. Whenever he surfaces…
Raph keeps checking in on him, afraid that he’ll drown himself to prove…
To prove what? Donnie’s already won. His time is over an hour and six minutes— that’s when the camera runs out of storage. Donnie’s gonna be so mad… They make it a goal for one of them to remember the time displayed on the pocket watch. They only have an hour until they have to go home. Will Donnie be able to last for that long? Leo bets no on the first slice of pizza. Mikey and April bet yes. Raph is boring and is too busy worrying about Donnie drowning to want to make a game out of it.
Mikey and April win.
They’re close to thirty minutes over curfew, too. Donnie still hasn’t budged, and he was still alive when Raph checked in two seconds ago. Leo doesn’t know how he hasn’t died from boredom.
Convincing Donnie to leave the pool is way harder than it ever should be. Leo has to threaten to have Raph drag him out, but ultimately, the breaking point is when he admits that they don’t even know how long it’s been. There’s no point in continuing.
Leo watches Donnie as he finally comes above the water. He doesn’t gasp for breath, or stand there to remember how to breathe, he just climbs right out of the pool. As if he hadn’t been underwater for way over an hour.
“How did you do that?” Leo asks. All eyes are on Donnie as they head back to the lair. Mikey’s even walking backwards (ignoring Raph’s fretting).
Donnie shrugs. “It’s not hard. I’ve always been fine under the water. I don’t feel like I need to come up.” He rubs at his neck, humming. His other hand twirls his glasses. Leo resists the urge to knock them out of his fingers. “I guess my body’s exceptional at holding and prioritizing oxygen use.” He nudges Leo. “You probably could’ve gone longer if you hadn’t been swimming around.”
“I can’t just sit there and do nothing!” Leo says. “Not everyone thinks thinking is a form of entertainment.”
Donnie shrugs. “Sounds to me like your head is just empty.”
Inhibitions begone. Leo flicks those glasses right out of Donnie’s hand. The wild shrieking that follows makes him cackle. Raph’s scolding slides right through one red ear and out the other. Donnie hisses at him and hurries on ahead. Leo chases after him, crowing, “I loooove youuuuu!”
“NO YOU DO NOT!”
“No running!” Raph cries, the boring, boring worrywart he is.
“Race you ALL back to the lair!” Leo cries. He shoves past a slowing Donnie, bumping him dangerously close to the water. He gets another hiss, and he jumps around to blow a raspberry, wiggling his fingers by his ears. He lands and twirls back around.
“Wait for meeee!” Mikey cries.
“Nuh-uh, nobody’s leaving me behind!” April yells.
Raph lets out a loud groan.
Leo just laughs.
He wins the race back to the Lair. Donnie loses, even to Raph (who either couldn’t resist the competition or only kept up just to helicopter over them all). Leo throws his twin a smirk. He’s less sore about the underwater contest, seeing as Donnie’s got some crazy superpower that therefore makes it unfair. So long as Leo’s the champion of everything else, all is well.
——ACotWG——
A week or so later, when April comes to visit them, she brings the answer to Donnie’s superpower. It’s held in a thick book about turtles. A pineapple-flavoured lollipop marks the section on spiny softshells. She has everyone gather around her, for dramatic effect. Donnie literally climbs into her lap— forgoing his usual aversion for touch. Probably because he wants a good view of the book. Leo settles next to her, leaning close enough that their shoulders nearly brush.
“Right here, this ‘Did you know?’ box.” April says, tapping it.
Donnie gasps. He’s a fast reader due to spending way too much time curled up with a book.
“What does it say? Read it aloud!” Mikey cries, hopping up on her back. April barely reacts to his weight.
“‘The spiny softshell turtle is one of the few animals able to breathe both on land and underwater,’” April says, “‘They’re able to exchange oxygen and carbon dioxide through their skin’, uhh… some sort of lining in the… far…yin…gel? Er, pharmacy?”
“Pharyngeal,” Donnie says.
“What’s that?” Mikey asks.
“The throat.”
“Ooh, okaaaay? So, the book says you breathe through your throat?”
“That would be correct.”
“How the heck do you do that?” Leo asks, a brow raising. It almost makes him wish for a pair of eyebrows of his own, just to get the action across. He leans down, trying to get a good look at Donnie’s throat— there’s nothing special about it that he can see.
Donnie shrugs. “I just… do it?” He rubs at his neck and chin, rolling the skin between his fingers. “I’ve never thought about it. I guess… it’s like normal breathing. Nobody tells you how to do it, you just do because you need to survive.”
That makes complete and no sense, and Leo’s not sure how that’s even possible. He takes a moment to think about his own breathing. He can do it consciously, so why can’t Donnie? Or maybe he does, and it’s somehow never occurred to him that he’s the only one who can do it. Then again, when have they ever really talked about it?
“According to the book, I can stay under for up to seven hours if the water has enough oxygen in it,” Donnie says. “Hmm. Well, I’ll just use that as my record until I can make my own.”
“Seven hours?!” Leo and Mikey cry.
“Only seven hours?” Leo smirks, nudging Donnie with an elbow. He hisses and bares his teeth. “What? I just heard you can breathe underwater, but apparently you can’t do it forever. That’s super lame.”
“You’re impossible,” Donnie grumbles. “You can only go for twenty-six minutes. Seven hours makes you look pathetic.”
“Yeah, Leo,” Mikey shoots him a pouty glare. “Stop trying to be the best at everything. Let Donnie be better at something that isn’t science-y.”
Raph cuffs the back of his head the moment Leo opens his mouth. “No more outta you. I’m with Mikey and Don on this one. You win most of the sports games we play. Stop ruining Donnie’s moment.”
Leo tosses his arms up. “I was only kidding! Geez!” He huffs and slides backwards. “Donnie can take it.”
He still gets a glare from April. Donnie’s focus is on the book, a finger tracing over the words.
“Is there anything about box turtles?” Mikey picks at the pages of the book. “Maybe we can figure out which one I am!”
And that’s how they spiral into a flood of turtle facts (and confirm that Mikey is indeed an ornate box turtle, much to his delight). It’s not as boring as Leo would’ve assumed had it been suggested to him ten minutes prior to it starting. It’s fascinating to look at pictures of how they had all looked pre-mutation, and to find a fact that perfectly fits one of them. They even test a couple things out, only stopping to warm up some leftover pizza for dinner.
It all ends in a turtle pile in front of the projector (Splinter is nowhere to be found, which means he won’t try to ruin their fun!), watching the latest Jupiter Jim film that April has brought with her; Jupiter Jim and Shark People of Planet Shark. Its underwater emphasis is ironic. They spend half the movie talking about how Donnie could join the adventure, a notion that has him happily shaking his fists and forgoing his volume control. Nobody really minds it.
Leo isn’t even upset about the competition anymore. He’s come to the conclusion that Donnie cheated, and therefore was disqualified. It had been a breath-holding contest, and he’d been breathing the whole time. So, Raph wins, Leo’s second, Mikey’s last, and Donnie’s a dirty cheater.
Yeah. Leo can live with that.