Draft Paper
The smell of pizza is the most prominent in the restaurant, the loud chatter and laughter from every customer overpowering the ring of a bell that indicates a customer's order is ready to be served.
"ORDER UP!" The yokai in the kitchen yelled as it slid over the plates of weird looking food.
Sunita ran over, apologizing to the customers she bumped into and picking up the plate of food despite her slime made hands.
Balancing the plate on one hand, she made her way back into the crowd, squeezing past people that were either sitting down or just now standing up to leave.
"Sorry! —Excuse me-" Sunita said as she passed a few grumpy customers that gave her looks and glaring her way as she passed them.
She huffed as she squeezed through two yokai that wouldn't move, holding onto the plate, still safely in her hands.
Sunita walked up to the table of one wolf Yokai, looking down at the plate in her hand to make sure she didn't accidentally get any of her slime on the food.
"Hello sir! Here's your 'creepy supreme' pizza!" She said enthusiastically, placing the plate of pizza on the table. "Is there anything else that I could get you?" She said, watching as the wolf yokai took a slice, the tentacle looking creatures on the piece squirming and shook his head as he took a bite of the slice, immediately slicing through the tentacle creature on the piece.
Sunita smiles, stepping away from the table as the wolf yokai grabbed a second slice. She turned around, sighing as her path is now once again blocked by multiple yokai leaving.
"Thank goodness that was my last table before lunch break." She mumbled, squeezing by the yokai and not really caring if any of her slime got on them.
Sunita walked towards where the kitchen is, having to go a different way due to many yokai standing around and blocking her path.
Familiar and loud voices came into earshot, one of them louder than the other.
“HE THREW A BUILDING?!”
Sunita winced at the loud shout of Leo's voice, getting closer to the table just in time to see Leonardo gawking at Mikey, words coming out of his mouth all jumbled while Mikey tried his best to keep up with what Leo was saying.
Raph looked over just in time to see Sunita approach with a smile and a wave.
He waved back with a nervous smile as he turned to try and calm Leo down from asking any more questions about whatever they were talking about.
As Mikey was trying to answer one of the questions Leo was thrown at him, he looked over past Leo and his smile grew, a look of relief spreading across his face as he spotted Sunita approaching at the end of the table.
Mikey climbed over Leo, pushing him away and ignoring the annoyed yelp that came from his brother and the sudden weight on top of him.
“Sunita!”, Mikey squealed. Leo glared at Mikey from the side as Mikey now sat on the end of the booth, full attention now on Sunita.
“How are you?! Did you like the cookies I dropped off last week?” He looked up at Sunita, stars practically in his eyes as he waited for an answer.
Sunita grinned down at Mikey. “Yup! Ate every last one! Very delicious and dad also agrees!”
His fist pumps the air, his smile widening. “Even exploding Franky likes my cooking!” He practically screamed, jumping onto Sunita unexpectedly, unbothered by the slimy texture of her. She giggled, hugging Mikey back with just as much enthusiasm. “You bet! He adores your cooking, chef!”
Sunita pulled away from Mikey after a few minutes, but just stuck to her, not letting go. Raph gently put a hand on Mikey's shell. “Hey big man, Sunita needs to go eat. It's her lunch break after all.” He waited for Mikey to respond, but he didn't react. “If you don't want the last piece of pizza before dessert gets here then i could just eat it fo-” Mikey suddenly let go of Sunita at the mention of his last piece of pizza getting eaten by someone else, plopping back into his seat next to Leo.
Sunita held in a giggle, hand covering her mouth and instead cleared her throat, smiling at the four turtles. "It was nice seeing you guys-" She glanced back at the kitchen area where a clock hung, that has cracks along the edge of the glass and looked back to the four turtles, her smile still on display. "It was nice to see you all, but unfortunately I have to get back to the kitchen, otherwise I won't get the time to get something in my stomach."
Sunita gave an apologetic smile. "But do tell April to visit sometime! I haven't seen her for a while." The table of turtles said their goodbyes, Donnie giving her thumbs up, eyes still on his phone and most likely texting April. She waved at them as she turned and left, maneuvering through the rest of the Yokai to the back of the kitchen area for her lunch break.
Opening the door to the kitchen, she made her way to the back, nodding to the chef as it called for another finished order to be taken to the respective table.
Sunita just barely touches the gate-like door to the break room when the chef suddenly stops her. "The newbie is in there." It says, attention still focused on the food he's making, not bothering to look up at Sunita's confused expression before realization hit her.
She turns her attention away from the chef, peaking over the wall to look into the room and spotting someone standing by the microwave. "He's still pretty new to everything, so he's been put on an early lunch break today." It moves around the food in the frying pan, the sizzling almost making it hard to hear with all the other noise coming from the customers.
The 'newbie' seems to be trying to heat something up, squinting down at the numbers displayed on the microwave with a confused and disheveled look.
A rabbit, Sunita notices. "And make sure he doesn't use the microwave without supervision." It finally glances her way, the food already plated. She nods, opening the gate with a screeching creak, the chef yelling out that an order is finished.
The newbie looks up at the sound of the gate, eyes meeting Sunita's as she steps into the room.
He looks down quickly, turning back to the microwave, smoothing down his apron that's still tied around his body.
Sunita walks over and stands next to him, bending down a bit to look at the microwave and typing in a few buttons in what seems to be a pattern, the microwave making a few humming noises before it finally starts up.
She looks up and sees the rabbit eyeing the microwave, looking even more confused than before. She smiles at him, hand patting him on the shoulder with a small laugh. "There's a specific pattern to it.", She says and heads off towards the refrigerator, which is probably the only normal thing in the room that isn't probably possessed or just another type of Yokai that's an actual object. "That's just how it's made I guess- Hueso had it since the day the restaurant opened." She opened the fridge, "he refuses to get rid of it until it actually starts breaking down; says as long as it still does what it's built to do there's no need for a new one." She moves some of the stuff in the particularly over-stocked fridge for something in the back, grabbing what looks like a container of something…that doesn't really look edible.
Sunita turned around, opening the container of squirming, slimy looking food with a smile on her face, looking up at the rabbit. "I'm Sunita!", She says very enthusiastically and stuffing her mouth with the 'food' from the container.
The rabbit looks at her with an expression mixed with disgust and interest, mumbling something that Sunita didn't bother to listen to or was just too busy eating to notice.
When the rabbit decided to clear his throat and reach out his hand is when she finally looked up at him. He nervously smiled, fidgeting with his bowtie, introducing himself "I'm Yuichi Usagi." Sunita grabs his hand in a shake and he looks down, the slime from her hand not bothering him much like her thought "it's uh.. nice to meet you Miss Sunita."
She gives him a huge smile, pulling her hand back and stabbing a piece of the food with her fork but not reaching to put it in her mouth.
"So where are you from, Usagi?" She looks him over, "I haven't seen you around in the hidden city at all."
The unnatural, screaming 'beeping' of the microwave goes off, Usagi's ears flattening half way before quickly going over to the blaring microwave and opening the door which, thankfully, stops the screaming.
"You'll eventually get used to that.", Sunita says, looking apologetic with her mouth full of whatever she's eating and moving to one of the tables that are displayed by the furthest wall from where he's standing.
Usagi takes out what looks like a cup of noodles from the microwave, shutting the door and making his way over to sit across from Sunita when she motioned in front of her.
He sits down, cup of noodles in his paws, mixing it with some chopsticks.
He looks up from his cup of noodles to look at Sunita who took another bite of her..'food'.
"I'm- uh from Neo Edo.", He says looking down at his noodles, only to look up at her again, this time meeting her gaze. She swallows, clearing her throat in her fist before looking at him with curiosity. "I've never heard of that place before- is it new?"
Usagi blows on some of the noodles, eating them once he believes it's not as hot. "It's.. a lot like the hidden city I guess.", he says between chewing.
Sunita hums, looking at him in thought as she chews. "It's a small hidden village in Japan.", Usagi says, swallowing. "It's a lot smaller and less crowded but that's to be expected I guess since nobody really knows about it."
Usagi uses his chopsticks once again to grab some of his noodles from the cup. Sunita looks at him with interest, about to say something else until something green and slimy splatters against the wall next to them, causing Usagi to slightly jump, finally noticing the seemingly see-through wall.
She laughs, looking out to where the green slime is now running down the wall. A look mixed with disgust and confusion comes over Usagi's face.
"I thought this wall didn't have any windows." He says, eyes on the customers that are now clapping and cheering as the green slime fully slides off the window.
Sunita smiles, gesturing towards the 'wall', "Hueso had a one way window installed that looks like just a regular wall to the customers. He said it was to have us keep an eye on the customers to make sure they don't break any of his merchandise." She rolls her eyes and looks back down at her half empty container.
Usagi's eyes looked around in the crowd of customers for a minute before looking back towards Sunita "Isn't that technically.. spying on the customers?"
He pushes around the noodles in his cup, glancing at the window before looking down at the cup, pulling out some more noodles with his chopsticks.
Sunita shrugs, chomping down on the food on her fork as she looks at the window and mumbling, "I guess."
Usagi and Sunita sit at the table, making small talk as Sunita finishes her container and Usagi is left with one more bit of his noodles.
Usagi laughs at something Sunita said, smiles on both of their faces until Usagi turns to the window again, spotting something that makes him abruptly stop.
Sunita looks up from her empty container, snapping it shut. She looks to the window to see what Usagi sees that caught his attention so suddenly.
She looks around in the room full of customers, glancing at Usagi once in a while to pinpoint where he's looking. She squints at the table he's staring at, spotting the group of turtles she grew accustomed to the last few months.
Sunita smirks, leaning against the table, arms laying crossed on the table. She clears her throat "So." Usagi looks at her with a small hum, still a bit out of it. Her smirk widens "Do you like a certain turtle?"
A few minutes of silence passes by, Usagi, blinking at Sunita with an expression of confusion. "Wha-" He glances out the window, realization taking over and heat rising to his cheeks in embarrassment. He turns his head to Sunita, coughing into his fist as he avoids eye contact "It's just a small crush is all.. I haven't even talked to him." Sunita hums, a gentle smile replacing the teasing smirk.
"Well lucky for you cause I'm friends with those turtles!" She gives him a close eyed smile.
That just made Usagi's cheek burn even more.
Sunita stands, chair tumbling to the ground and startling Usagi. She makes her way over to him, arm around his shoulder "Don't worry! I'll help you ask for their number!" She squeezes Usagi closer to her "So-" She turns them both to look at the window. "Which one of the turtles caught the eye of my new bestie?" Sunita looks at Usagi's red face with a huge smile.
Usagi looks up at the slime Yokai, his paw that isn't squished between them, fanning his face as if it'll help cool him down.
"Uhm.." His face cools, but still a bit red at the thought of telling his new friend about who he's found an interest in.
Usagi looks out the window again, Sunita doing the same. A small smile plays at his lips mumbling, "The blue one.." it was quiet but she heard it.
Sunita hums, using air quotes. "The 'blue one's' name is Leonardo." She grins down at Usagi. "But fair warning, he's pretty bad at Jokes."
That makes him laugh, looking up at her with a smile. "How about you? Do you have someone you like?"
A gentle smile takes over her features. "yeah, I guess so.", Sunita gasps, stars practically shining in her eyes "We both like someone from the same family!" She giggles and shakes Usagi in excitement.
Sunita squeals, Usagi's ear is flattening and looking dizzy as he smiles up at her with amusement.
"But!"
She pointed a finger at him accusingly, "You have to get his number today or I'll just have to drag you over there."
Usagi forms a look of shock mixed with horror, heat rising to his cheeks.
He tries to say something but gets rudely interrupted by Sunita as she pulls him out of his chair, a cup of noodles abandoned on the table. She drags him to the door of the kitchen, passing the chef.
Usagi's heels dig into the floor, placing his hands on the walls near him to stop Sunita from pushing him out of the kitchen.
He looks behind him at her with a panicked look, "I can't! Why do I-" She shushes him.
"Break is over and we have to get back to work anyways!" She looks towards the door in front of them. "Besides, that's your section after break and I get the other section. Plus they're about to leave anyway so might as well just ask how their service was and stuff." She waved her hand as she spoke.
Usagi looked confused, "But I thought your section-"
"Go now!" She opened the door and pushed Usagi out, slamming the door shut with a grin.
"You don't know exactly what happens if Hueso finds out about you switching sections with the newbie right?", The chef says, looking towards Sunita.
Sunita turns to look at the chef, her grin not disappearing. "Don't worry! I have it all under control if that does happen!" She says and peeks out the door to look at where Usagi went and silently cheers him on as he starts to approach the turtle's table.
The chef rolled its eyes with an amused huff, approaching Sunita quietly and copying her earlier actions by pushing her out the door. She just turned to look behind her and about to say something but all she got was a smirk and a door closed in her face.