"Ssh. Don't wake them up yet."

"Oh, this is too good."

Click.

Destiny's sensitive ears twitch and her eyes flutter open, her face scrunched up, and she blinks so that the crusty feeling of exhaustion can leave her eyes sooner. The lair is bright now, making her instantly slam her eyelids closed against and bury into the hard surface below her. Her arms tighten around something warm.

"Des? Helloooooo?" Michelangelo coos, pressing his finger against her cheek. "Wake up, sleepy puppy."

"I'm not a puppy," she mumbles. "Leave me alone."

Raphael's voice comes in next. "You comfy?" he wonders, and she doesn't miss the teasing element in his tone, which is that of when someone is holding back a laugh.

"Mmhmm," she huffs.

"We can tell. You must be very peaceful," Donatello adds.

She doesn't respond to him. Then, the surface below her shifts and she's instantly more awake. She lifts her head and looks down, seeing Leonardo snoozing away beneath her. Her face becomes hot as she lets out a startled bark, shoving off of him and toppling from the bench.

Leonardo wakes with a sharp exhale of breath, his arms flying to curl around his plastron as he sucks in a wheezing breath. His gaze quickly latches on Destiny from where she's seated on the floor, cheeks dusted with pink. The blue-masked turtle blushes slightly before clearing his throat.

He stands up, stretching his arms upwards and cracking his neck. "Good morning, guys," he greets his giggling brothers.

"Morning, Casanova," Raphael says, giving him a very wide smirk. "Did you sleep well?"

"I slept great, thank you," Leonardo responds. He looks down at Destiny, offering her his hand as he winks. "How about you, Des? Sleep well?"

She blushes deeper, grabbing his hand and allowing herself to be yanked to her feet. She nods, moistening her lips with her tongue as she fidgets in place.

"Y-Yeah, great sleep," she says.

Michelangelo makes a strangled laughing noise and claps his hand over his mouth. Leonardo's attention switches to him in an instant, noticing that his brother's free arm is hiding behind his back.

"Mikey, what are you hiding?" he asks.

"Nothing?" Michelangelo grins, lowering the hand near his mouth.

Donatello and Raphael cast darting glances to the turtle, then to one another. Leonardo lifts his hands, making them look like claws, and flashes a wicked grin. Michelangelo lets out a shriek and takes a staggering step back before Leonardo tackles him to the ground and they go rolling across the floor.

Leonardo gets off him as soon as he has Michelangelo's phone, only then noticing that it's not Michelangelo's, but Raphael's device that he holds. He gives the turtle in question a pointed look. Raphael shrugs.

"Aw, look at that," Leonardo says, pulling up the latest picture on the phone. He wanders closer to Destiny, watching as she gets visibly more embarrassed with every movement. A smile grows on his face and he shakes his head. "I don't think I can delete this," he says slowly. "It's pretty cute."

He turns the phone and shows her the image—a very blatant piece from their accidental snuggle party—and she whimpers as she buries her face in her hands. That's all it takes for the four brothers to lapse into laughter.

As if summoned by the wolf mutant's distress, Destiny's phone buzzes from where she left it near the TV. She dives for the device and opens it in a hurry. A text from April brightens up her screen and her life in a few seconds.

A: Hey, wanna hang out today? School let out early and I've got some free time.

D: Probably.

A: Everything okay over in the boy lair?

D: They're obnoxious at best. I could use girl time.

A: Oh my gosh, same. Irma has been driving me crazy.

Destiny shakes her head, exhaling heavily through her nostrils in amusement. Irma is one of April's human friends and, according to what April has said about the girl in question, she's...eccentric and slightly annoying. She's like a fountain of trivial facts that no one really needs to know, yet she blesses them with the knowledge anyways.

D: I'll meet you at your place?

A: Cool! See you in a few!

D: See ya :)

Destiny shuts off the phone, turning back to the turtles as she straightens up. They've stopped laughing, although their faces are still teasing.

"April wants to hang out, and I'm going," she announces, mentally preparing for the responses.

Sure enough, the smiles fall and Leonardo pipes up with a stern reminder of, "You aren't supposed to leave the lair."

She crosses her arms over her chest. "Please? It'll only be April's house...can't I go?"

The turtles glance at each other. Destiny starts planning an escape plan instantly.

"Let her go, dudes." Michelangelo grins. "It's April. She'll be fine."

More questioning looks between one another. After a moment or two, Donatello nods. Raphael agrees with his own assertive nod, making Leonardo sigh. Destiny's lips twitch upwards as her green eyes widen slightly.

"Fine," Leonardo says to her. He takes a few steps closer, aiming his finger at her. "Just call if anything goes wrong, alright?"

"Deal!" she agrees heartily. She throws her arms around his neck, hugging him tightly as she grins. "Thank you so much, Leo."

She sprints from the lair with her t-phone in hand, hardly stopping to scream out a goodbye to the others. Leonardo stares after her, his green skin becoming red-tinted for the umpteenth time since he woke up this morning, and his brothers proceed to whistle and croon out "ooooooo" while making kissing noises.

----------

"April? Hey, it's me!" Destiny whispers, tapping rapidly on the redhead's window. "Remember, it's daytime? The longer I'm out here the easier—"

The window flies open, revealing April, who promptly ushers the mutant inside. Shutting the window again, she turns around and greets her friend with a smile.

"Hey, glad you could make it," she says.

"Me too," Destiny admits, raking her fingers through her hair.

April moves closer to her, opening her mouth to say something, but then stops short. Her nose wrinkles for a second.

"Des...did you freshen up before you came here?" she asks, speaking as if treading on nails (or Lego pieces, whichever is more painful).

The wolf shakes her head. "Not really. Why?"

"You kind of smell, and I mean that in the least offensive way possible."

Destiny's face flickers with surprise as she looks down at herself. She lifts her shirt to her face, inhaling, and then she too wrinkles her nose and drops it.

"Oh," she says.

"When was the last time you washed your clothes?" April asks. "Or used deodorant?"

"Uh...never?"

"Oh my god, Destiny!"

"Well, I'm sorry! That stuff never mattered before!" she exclaims, throwing her hands up in the air. "Besides, the turtles don't wear clothes..." She thinks again before asking, "What's deodorant?"

April stifles a giggle, looking away as she quivers with silent laughter. "Okay, okay, I get it," she says, taking a deep breath and regaining her composure. She tilts her head to the side and surveys the girl before her. "Do you need me to show you a thing or two about personal hygiene?"

Destiny looks at her feet, scuffing her shoe against the floor, then nods sheepishly. April nods, gesturing for Destiny to follow after her. They head down the hallway, the taller girl trailing along at a slower pace as she looks at the pictures hanging on the walls, mostly of April and a redheaded man.

"Hey...April, where's your dad?" Destiny asks, hoping that her assumption isn't too far off.

"Currently, he's a giant mutant bat hiding somewhere in the city," April says with a weak smile. Destiny's look of alarm makes her sigh. "It's a long story, but I'm working with it and Donnie is doing his best with the retro-mutagen to change him back. I'm sure it'll work out."

"Well...okay, just surprised, that's all," the wolf says with a shrug.

They reach April's room, where April rests a hand on the doorknob before giving her friend an almost mischievous look.

"Prepare to be amazed," she jokes, making Destiny smile.

----------

"Okay, and that's how you shave. It takes some practice to stop nicking yourself though."

Destiny, who's currently seated on the closed toilet in April's bathroom, holds her arm up and practically strokes her armpit, unable to stop touching her skin. Her legs, which are now bare thanks to a pair of April's old pyjama shorts, are also free of the shaggy carpet of hair that'd been covering it before. There are also multiple tiny bandages dotting the dip of her kneecaps, her ankles, and the back of her knees.

April can't bring herself to stop smiling, and can't help but see Destiny's naivety as a source of amusement. She's also seizing this opportunity to be the "big sister", showing her sibling the ropes. It's something she never got to do herself.

"Okay, now deodorant? It comes in these little sticks," April says, holding up said hygiene product so that Destiny can see. The mutant looks up and gives it a strange look. "You apply it to your underarms and it helps you smell not as sweaty."

"Oh, that's what it's for! I thought that was some sort of air freshener," Destiny admits, finally lowering her arm back to her side. "I...also didn't read the label..."

"Here, try some," April says, uncapping the deodorant and holding it out to Destiny.

She sniffs and instantly lurches backwards, clapping her hands over her nose as her eyes water. April blinks a few times, her lips parting.

"That's so overpowering," Destiny gasps, squeezing her eyes shut as trying to be rid of the moisture in them. "Oh god..."

"What? But I..." April looks down at the fruit-scented item, then her eyes widen. "Oh! Wolf sense of smell! I'm so sorry, Des."

"All good," she mumbles, shaking her head swiftly as she wipes at her eyes.

"I think I have an unscented one, hold on."

Destiny waits as April kneels next to her bathroom cupboards, the girl rifling through them with a concentrated expression. Destiny glances down and looks at her underarms again, utterly amazed.

"Found it!" April calls.

She chucks the stick to Destiny. She catches it, uncaps it, and carefully starts rolling it on. She finishes rather easily, a look of pride invading her eyes as her fluffy tail starts to wag. April strokes her chin, squinting her eyes every now and then and making her freckles move up and down.

"I showed you proper hair brushing, shaving, washing clothes, deodorant..." Her face shifts as if she just thought of something incredibly uncomfortable, and she confirms that when she next speaks. "Uh...you know how to handle the monthly Mother Nature visit, yeah?"

Destiny nods, her cheeks turning pink. "Yeah, er...I only started last year, and Murakami helped me. Said he had a daughter too and that it wasn't new. Still probably the most embarrassing thing ever."

"Good, that's something I'm not ready to teach," April laughs. She points at Destiny and fakes a serious look. "But seriously, if you ever need stuff, text me. I'll hook you up."

Destiny salutes and winks, making both of them dissolve into little giggles. April hoists herself onto the counter, leaning against the mirror as she knits her hands around one bent knee.

"Hey, question, do girls have to shave?" Destiny wonders. "I like the smoothness, but...well, the body hair was always like an extra lair of warmth for me before."

"You don't have to. Some girls never shave, some shave everything." She shrugs. "I honestly like the feeling of smooth legs and stuff."

"I kind of do too, but it seems like high maintenance."

"I'll let you in on a female secret..." April whispers, casting a glance over her shoulder before leaning towards Destiny. "Just shave when you wear shorts and leave it when you wear jeans."

"Which is...all the time," Destiny says.

They laugh again, more to themselves than to each other. April inhales and pats the counter, glancing towards the door.

"Want to watch a movie or something?" she asks.

Destiny perks up. "Ooo, yes."

-----------

Destiny lays on her back on April's bed, freshly-shaved legs against the wall and face tilted to the ceiling. April sits on the floor with her own body braced against the side of the mattress, her foot tapping aimlessly against the floor as they watch their movie.

Destiny's thoughts have wandered from the movie to what she woke up to this morning, sleeping with Leonardo in the loosest sense of the term.

"April, how do you know if you have a crush on someone?" she asks.

April hums to herself, then she turns her head towards Destiny as Destiny turns her own head towards her. Their eyes lock as April pouts out her lips in thought.

"Um, you feel really happy and safe around that person," she says. "You want to talk to them and be near them and sometimes, you get jealous if someone else has their attention. They can also make you angry, make you want to listen to mushy love songs..." She smiles a little and averts her eyes. Destiny frowns slightly and her friend surfaces from her miniature daydream. "Why do you ask?"

"No reason, I..." She exhales, shutting her eyes as she aims her face back at the ceiling. "I was thinking about Leonardo..."

April gasps as she covers her smile with a hand. "Oh my god, what happened?"

"Nothing! I just fell asleep watching TV with him yesterday and we woke up—" She reddens and lets out a soft groan. "...cuddling." April makes a little squealing noise that makes the wolf smack her lightly on the shoulder. "Shut up! It's not like that! It was accidental!"

"Accidents sometimes lead to amazing things," the redhead teases, winking at her brunette friend. "You like him."

"I don't know, April, I've never liked a guy romantically before," Destiny admits, rolling onto her stomach and folding her arms beneath her head. "I mean, aside from cartoon characters."

"It's okay to like Leo. He's a great guy," April says, reaching over to pat her shoulder. "You don't need to be afraid about something like a crush. Most people end up feeling it at some time or another."

"Yeah...I guess."

April watches her for a moment, eyeing the mutant's tensed arms and the way she's fidgeting and wiggling her toes. April stands and looks down at her.

"I think you need an extra outfit for when your other one gets dirty," she says. "Come on, we're going shopping."

"April, I can't go outside. It's daytime."

"That's the point of a disguise," she teases. "Get your fluffy butt off that bed and let's go! Time for you to show off those legs of yours."

Destiny decides not to argue, letting out a heavy sigh as she rolls over and drags herself off the bed.