Work Text:
It was 10 PM.
10 PM!
Raph was supposed to be watching Twilight right now! (Mikey’s movie choice, not his, of course…)
That’s what he gets for forgetting the chips for weekly movie night…
Splinter started movie nights when they were small turtles, and the world was still new and fun. Raph figured he was the only one who actually remembered the first movie night, as the others were too young.
Splinter had found an old VHS in the sewer and had set up their makeshift TV to play the movie. It was The Sound of Music. Raph held splinters furry hand the whole time, eyes glued to the television as his little brothers slept soundly to the voice of Julie Andrews.
Movie nights continued weekly after that. Eventually, Donnie was able to build them a better working T.V and find more movies. The only time movie nights paused was when Donnie went missing. It hadn’t been the same without his scoffs or rants about plot holes or the characters.
Anyways, movie nights were bonding time. They all sat around the ratty couch and shared a bag of chips to watch a movie of someones choice. They rotated whose movie it was each week, usually the choice was influenced by the others. Leo often bribed Mikey with pizza or pretty beads to be able to indirectly choose the movie for that week.
They all had a part to play to make movie night go smoothly. Including who was in charge of snacks. Raph had forgotten that week, in favor of gaming with Casey instead of going to the bodega.
After being haggled by his brothers Raph had begrudgingly went to the surface to go buy their stupid sour cream and onion Lays (the worst flavor in his opinion).
He stood in front of the convenience store, waiting to see if any employees were inside. The sign on top of it buzzed, neon letters spelled out Tony’s Grocer , in curly font. An A.C unit from one of the tenants above the store dripped onto the pavement.
The manhole he exited was a few feet away. The actual lair was only about 15 minutes from the entrance. The convenience store was situated on a side road in the residential Brooklyn area. The only other people Raph could see was a man bathed in shadows smoking a cigarette and the silhouette of a woman walking through the small playground behind him.
A train rushed by on the metal bridge down the block. He saw a few passengers, most of them heading into the city for late shift work or returning from their job.
The sky was smoggy and a grayish blue. The sun set hours ago but the city lights added a yellow hue to the sky and horizon.
A young woman exited the convenience store holding a brown paper bag close to her chest. Raph turned his back to her so she wouldn’t see his face. He doubted the dim light from the lamp posts would illuminate him, but it was better to be safe than sorry.
Raph pulled a crumpled five dollar bill from his belt and pushed open the door, hoping all the employees would be too tired to care about the strange little green teenager in a trenchcoat.
The store seemed to be completely empty other than a few flies hovering near the door. The inside was quite large, shelves packed closely together, fully stocked with cooking supplies, candy, and anything else someone might need. An opened Monster can sat behind the cash register, the employee who was drinking it nowhere to be found.
Raph pulled his fedora down to cover his eyes and noted the location of the security cameras. He wanted to be as quick as possible to avoid being stopped by security because of how suspicious he looked.
Raph started to make his way towards one of the aisles but was stopped by a firm hand on his shoulder.
“Hey little dude, where’s your mom? The store’s closing.” A familiar voice announced.
Raph whipped around and snarled at the tall human boy standing over him.
“Woah! No need to bite bro… Oh shit- I mean crap- your skin is green..” Casey said pulling his hand quickly away from Raph.
“Casey you dumbass, it's me.” Raph threw off the fedora, punching him roughly on the shoulder.
“Oh, hey Raph! My bad dude, you’re so short I thought you were a little kid.” Casey teased, grinning widely. Raph looked away ignoring the heat in his cheeks trying not to think about Casey's smile.
He huffed, grabbing the human boys arm and pulling him towards the chip aisle.
“Since when have you worked here?” He asked scanning the shelves for the coveted Lays.
“For a few weeks… Didn’t Donnie tell you? He came in here last week, not a very talkative guy, huh?” Casey said, leaning casually against the display.
“Fucking hell Don.. Nah he didn’t say anything. He hates you. I don’t know why.” Raph grumbled. “Y’know what? Why don’t you come to our movie night tonight, we’re watching as many Twilight movies as we can until Mikey falls asleep or Leo starts crying.”
“Sure, I’ll just text my dad.” Casey pulled out his phone and cursed. “1%, of course. Hopefully I won’t need to text anyone else.”
Raph perked his head up at the sound of boots down the main aisle. The door of the convenience store opened, and the lights flicked off before the door closed, leaving the store absent of the fluorescent buzzing it had before.
Casey sighed. “Ugh, my stupid manager Brian. He should know I’m still working.” He jogged into the darkness leaving Raph alone for a few seconds before the lights switched on.
“Come on, I’ll ring you up.”
Raph held the bag of chips firmly as he walked to the register, watching Casey thrust his head backward to inhale the rest of his Monster.
Casey took the chips and scanned them. Raph handed him the 5 dollars and got his change, ignoring how badly he had wanted to hold Casey's hand when it brushed his to hand him the coins.
Casey exited from behind the register, casually slinging his backpack behind his shoulder. The two walked to the door. Raph reached to open it but Casey stopped him.
“Allow me,” He said bowing jokingly.
Raphs cheeks flushed deeply and he tried to hide it with his hands, internally kicking himself. Why did this keep happening?
Casey pulled on the door while still maintaining his bow. It didn’t budge.
He laughed nervously and straightened up to tug on the door more violently.
“Uh- everything okay?” Raph asked.
Casey turned back to him with an anxious grin. “Well, we might maybe… possibly be… locked in.” He replied sheepishly.
“WHAT.” Raph barked, grabbing the door handle and pulling it roughly. It didn’t budge.
“My manager must have thought I had left work early…” Casey tugged his locs, a habit Raph noticed him do when he was anxious or stressed. “The store is closed tomorrow, who knows how long we’ll be stuck here.”
Raph looked around for some kind of exit. Worst case scenario they could just break the glass door.
As if he had read his mind Casey sighed, “We can’t break or force anything open because Brian has alarms on every window and the front and back doors. The moment those are set off the cops are called and they probably won’t be very kind to a mutant turtle.”
Raph groaned, “So what do we do then?”
Casey looked up, “I can call Brian from your phone and he can let us out. He lives pretty close to the store.”
“I didn’t bring my phone.” Raph grumbled.
“Great. You didn’t bring your phone for some stupid reason and mine is dead.” Casey said, throwing his hands up in the air.
“Hey! I had a reason to not bring it since I live nearby. What's your excuse for not charging your phone? Too busy ‘skateboarding’?” Raph snarled.
“My skateboard is broken! You know that!” Casey snapped back.
“Sure,” Raph murmured, “Just like your music taste?”
Casey took a deep breath, seemingly about to retort angrily but he stopped himself. “Okay, okay, you said some things, I said some things, but lets get back to trying to get out. Arguing won’t do anything.”
Raph stared at him, “Who are you and what did you do to Casey Jones?” He chuckled, “Since when have you not wanted to argue.”
Casey rolled his eyes, “Since the guidance counselor has been making me go to his office every day after school. Major bummer, but I guess I have ‘anger issues’.”
Raph snorted, “‘Anger issues’ are just something brothers say you have when they want you to try their homemade medicine.”
Casey squinted at him, “No- Raph, that's not- oh whatever.” He walked to where Raph was standing and threw his arm around his shoulder so their faces were close together.
Raph immediately pushed him back, face on fire.
“Dude, what the heck?! You were close enough to kiss me!” He scowled, as Casey held his hands up.
“I wasn’t going to! I mean I wasn’t thinking about it. Why would I be thinking about that?! We’re friends, we’re best bro friends. I mean if you were a girl then yeah but you’re a guy and I’m not like- gay or whatever so I wasn’t thinking about that…” He trailed off, a deep crimson flooding his cheeks.
They both stood in silence for a few seconds before Raph cleared his throat and broke the awkward tension. “So, what should we do to get out of here.”
Casey thought for a moment before replying. “We could get to the roof through the vents… Then you could do your ninja stuff and get us to the ground!”
“But how would we get up to the vents?” Raph responded, peering up at the ceiling. It was covered with white tiles, but at one of the far corners he could see the metal grate for ventilation. The ceiling was easily 12 feet high though, and there were no ladders in sight.
“Uhhh… we could climb the shelves?” Casey suggested. “They’re not nailed down. I know that because one time I accidentally toppled them all over like dominoes and a jar of tomato sauce hit my coworker in the head and he got a concussion. It was pretty funny.” He smirked.
“You’re also like- really strong, so you could turn them sideways and prop it against the wall so we can climb up them.” Casey said excitedly.
Raph was surprised by the complement and didn’t respond for a few seconds before realizing Casey was waiting for his response.
“That's a pretty solid plan… Let's do it.” He said, walking towards a particularly long self. He carefully began placing the merchandise on the floor as Casey joined him.
“Sorry we’ll miss movie night…” Casey said guiltily. “I know it's an important thing for your family.” He ducked his head down to the bottom row, scooping a few jars of dip into his arms.
“You don’t have to be sorry. It’s not your fault.” Raph replied, smiling slightly at Casey.
Casey grinned back, placing the jars on the floor. Raph laughed nervously, turning his head away so Casey couldn’t see the red encroaching his cheeks. Maybe Donnie could make some anti-blush potion. That’d be a lifesaver.
“Hey Raph?” Casey mumbled.
“Yeah?”
“What if… What if someone you knew wasn’t straight but you thought they were?” He asked nervously.
“Then I wouldn’t really care. Mikey's aroace and Leo’s pretty fruity.” Raph said, continuing to take jars and bags off of the shelf.
“Oh ok. Do you think you could ever, hypothetically, like-” Casey was interrupted by a series of beeps before the front door fell over, cracking the glass.
In the entrance, a small turtle with purple markings took a small device off of the door and placed it in his belt, flicking his goggles up and putting his glasses on.
When he made eye contact with Raph he smiled slightly before noticing Casey and glaring needles at him.
Raph jumped up and jogged to the door to pat him roughly on the back. “Hey, thanks Don!”
Donnie stumbled slightly from Raph’s gesture, but nodded. “Anytime.” He replied coolly, still glaring at Casey who was walking towards them slowly.
“Why are you here?” Donnie sneered.
Casey seemingly didn’t notice the malice, “Thanks for the exit, Dee. I work here on school nights.” He replied.
“Only my brothers can call me ‘Dee’.” He muttered, hatred dripping from every word.
Raph raised his eyebrows at Casey, as if to apologize for his brother's actions.
“Casey’s coming to movie night. Hopefully you didn’t already start it.” He said to Donnie, who was already exiting the store, in a haste to get home.
Donnie sighed loudly. “Of course he’s coming. No, Mikey insisted we wait for you. So we waited two hours until I decided to go find you.”
Casey tapped Raph on the shoulder and handed him the chips he had paid for. They had been sitting on the floor, forgotten in the wake of trying to escape.
No one was on the street now, and they moved swiftly through the shadows towards the manhole.
Raph easily lifted the cover, metal cold from the dark of the night. Donnie crept down first, foot slipping on the damp ladder rings. He was more tense than usual. Raph knew it was because of Casey, but screw it. He was allowed to have friends.
They walked in awkward silence back to the lair. Casey kept trying to talk, but Donnie would shoot a glare back at him and shut him up.
When they reached the doors entering the secure lair, Raph held Casey’s arm back and told Donnie to go ahead.
“I don’t know why he’s like this…” Raph muttered, gesturing to Donnie, who had taken the chips and practically sprinted to get back to his spot in front of the TV.
“He cares about you,” Casey smiled. “I understand where he’s coming from, I guess.”
Raph saw something far too kind in his eyes and he looked away. Why was this boy so set on becoming friends with 4 awkward mutants. Why did he single Raph out, from all of them? Was it because of that day when he’d pinned him against the concrete and demanded for him to spill his evil mutant secrets, driven in righteous fear more than anger? Did he feel guilty because of that fight? Or was he as thrilled as Raph was to have met an equal opponent?
Maybe he was just lonely, like they were.
“Um,” Raph began, rocking on his heels. “If you wanted to, you could probably spend the night after we finish watching the movies. Fine if not, of course. It’s just, y’know, really dark already and I have a cot I could set up in my room.”
He knew Casey would see straight through those excuses, picking the words apart like a tangerine and revealing the vulnerable fruit underneath, that he cared about Casey and wanted him near.
His expression gave nothing away though, as he smiled warmly and nodded.
“Oh, thank you! I really didn’t want to have to call my dad to pick me up, or walk home.”
“Yeah, it’s no problem.” Raph waved his hands, making a start for the door.
The movie had begun, his family sprawling out on the couch and armchairs. He took a spot on the floor, head resting against Leo’s legs above him on the sofa. He didn’t acknowledge him, too busy enraptured with Bella Swan and Edward Cullen. Casey plopped himself down next to Raph.
No one spoke, and the movies droned on as they all slowly fell asleep.
And if by the end of Breaking Dawn Raph’s head had fallen to rest on Casey’s shoulder, so what.
Can’t a guy be tired?
Nardo_the_l0ser Wed 21 May 2025 02:29PM UTC
Last Edited Wed 21 May 2025 02:31PM UTC
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elio_the_dud Wed 21 May 2025 02:32PM UTC
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excelll333 Sun 25 May 2025 09:13PM UTC
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