What They Don't Understand, What They Can't Conquer (#6)

"People fear what they can't understand, and hate what they can't conquer."

-Andrew Smith

Notes: These both hurt me hard (of course slavery hurts everyone, or it should at least make you lose at least a bit of faith in humanity) and the Ferry incident got me so disturbed, I couldn't sleep for 4 days. I really couldn't, it shook me up too much. I couldn't stop thinking about it since my worst fear is being with people and turning around to them being gone only to find out I've been abandoned.

(Tmi Ik)

TMNT 2k14/2k16 - Don and Raph/Mike and Leo

Part One – What They Don't Understand

Part Two - What They Can't Conquer

Disclaimer: I DO NOT OWN NINJA TURTLES OR THEIR AMAZING BROTHERLY FLUFFINESS

Don tried to keep his sniffling quiet. Why was he so worked up about this?

"Don?"

'Damnit.' He thought, belittling himself.

"Don, what's wrong bro?" Raph stood concerned in the Lab entrance, his eyes sweeping over anything physical on Don, also trying to read his younger brother.

"Don…" He was losing his patience. There was not a (at least new anyways) scratch or dent on him, nor was anything in the area standing out.

"I-I'm fine." He stammered lamely.

He scoffed. "Sure."

"Please Raphie, I'm fine." He sniffed, fixing his glasses and shifting in his chair.

"Well, I ain't leavin' 'till I know what's got ya upset." Raph said stubbornly. He continued to stare at Don and smirked as he watched Don slowly break by shifting, moving around, flickering eyes back and forth, etc.

"Fine! I was- was watching…" He mumbled the rest.

"What? Don, I can't hear ya bro if ya ain't speakin' up." He growled, not much more patience left.

"I said I was watching a video!" Don snapped lightly.

"It was about, about African American humans, or more like all colored humans..." Don seemed nervous but Raph was still deadpanning. Don figured as much, none of them had to learn from Master Splinter about history in America. Only Japanese history, and even then, it was limited. So naturally, Raph didn't really know about slavery, none of the brothers did for that matter.

"Yeah?"

"And-and how people used to sell and beat and use them like slaves way back in history." He finished meekly.

To Don's surprise, Raph just sighed.

"Wait, do you already-"

"Leo and me… we both did our fair share of searchin'. Remember when Leo and I got along? We used ta find books an' stuff about it. We were shocked too, but learned ta except it. It's history now little brother, it's done wit." His Brooklyn accent was heavy with sorrow and nostalgia.

'Now I seem dumber.'

"Is that what ya were snifflin' 'bout? Slavery?"

"Ma-maybe…" Don kept his head down in embarrassment and his green cheeks were pink now. He twiddled with his fingers as Raph approached him.

"Don, it ain't nuthin' ta be ashamed 'bout. Yer just more sensitive ta that stuff. It's fine bro. In a way, they were kinda just like us." It was rare Raph mused, but when he did, he normally was great at connecting the dots right back to the source. Mikey sometimes would joke about how he could be a detective if he could.

"How?" Don was about to wipe the fresh tears away but Raph had crouched down at Don's eye level and done it for him.

"People fear what they don't undastand right? Just like us, no one could undastand why they were a different color. Same thing wit us. Just, 'tis more than just a skin color." He finished smirking.

"A-and like how people didn't think of them as equals because of it, just like us." Don's lisp came more pronounced with each word as he struggled to recompose himself. How could people do that.

"Yeah." Raph looked over to Don's laptop and realized what he'd been doing. On the screen was a YouTube video with a paused screen showing dark skinned men in crummy clothes being spraying by policemen with water houses. He cringed, knowing that in one book, it explained that high pressure water could feel like getting blasted or shot.

Raph forcefully, but not too much to break the damned thing, slammed the laptop shut.

"Yer sleeping, now."

"Bu-"

"No objections Brainiac. Sleep, now." Don sighed as Raph grabbed him in a headlock before shoving him out of the lab.

"Hey," He said gently, seeing Don's saddened face, "Yer sleepin' wit me tanight." He knew Don was thinking about the unpleasant images again.

"Thanks."

"No problem little brotha. Just next time, don't go round lookin' up that crap. Ain't no time ta live in tha past, right?"

"Right."

Raph held him younger brother tighter than he ever had before that night. He'd be damned if anything else humans did wrong reached his little brother again. He held him tighter, as if to protect him from the world. And Don did nothing but sleep, his brother's tight embrace letting him know he was safe and that it was all just really in the past.

PART TWO

"Mikey? What're you doing up this late?" Leo's voice, though loud enough and clear (since Splinter wasn't asleep anyways and Raph and Don were never getting up), it barley reached the youngest turtle brother.

"Mikey." Leo's voice became soft and concerned when he saw what his brother was watching on the internet.

'Raw footage: Teens' final moments on South Korean ferry – YouTube'

"Mikey, you shouldn't be seeing this." He immediately tried turning his innocent little brother's eyes away from the laptop screen, but Mikey wasn't budging. That's when Leo saw tears in Mikey's eyes.

"W-why…" Mikey trailed off, his baby brother's voice was cracking with each word.

"Why would someone leave a bunch of kids, n-no older than…than us… to-to drown?" Mikey's voice broke the normally stoic leaders heart.

Leo sighed, heart torn, and sat next to his baby brother. He pulled him into a tight hug and shut the laptop down.

"Mikey… sometimes people just don't have humanity. The people that left those kids, left them to sink, they were just afraid and too panicked to even consider those kids. They were selfish."

Mikey let a small sob out and Leo just squeezed tighter.

"W-why? Those kids had families, Leo; families! Like if we went on that and didn't come back to papa! It's not fair! Why would s-someone do that?" Mikey said this all through the hiccups. His voice was mumbled due to being buried in Leo's plastron.

"I don't know exactly why ototo. I think- I think it's because people hate what they can't conquer. They couldn't stop the ship from sinking, so they were afraid and angry and took it out on those kids; only thinking for themselves." He said, trying to soothe his baby brother by rocking him.

"Leo, how do we stop it?" Mikey's voice was so hopeful, as if thinking Leo had a plan. A plan that could stop all bad and evil in the world, a plan that could stop selfish people and greed, stop anger and fear and death. Oh, how Leo wished.

"There are just some bad in the world baby brother. Some bad we can't stop. Some bad that'll always be there. I wish we could stop all this from happening, I wish. But we can't stop everything. Do you understand?"

"So, so we can't stop it? So wh-why are we trying?" The way Mikey said it, chilled Leo to the bone. His voice was cold and quiet.

"Ototo." Leo grabbed Mikey's chin and lifted it up to face him. "Never give up. Yes, there will always be bad. But there will also always be good. And I assure you, there will always be more good than bad. It's only because we, as living beings for humans and mutants, tend to see only the bad things, and ignore the good things. But you're different Mikey, you've always seen the good side. You need to keep seeing that side. Promise me?"

Mikey digested what his brother said and Leo didn't push, he saw the contemplating look they all knew so well.

"I Promise."

"Good. Now," Leo took the laptop from Mikey, swearing in the back of his mind to talk to Don about banning certain YouTube searches," Let's get to bed okay? Training's going to start in a couple of hours."

The terrified look that crossed Mikey's face told Leo enough.

"Want to sleep with me ototo?"

"Please Ani …" Mikey wasn't the bravest turtle, but Mikey hasn't looked at Leo with such fear of sleeping in such awhile, it broke a bit of him inside. Mikey was so damn innocent. He was only 14, it was bad enough they did what they did every night, but now this? Seriously, YouTube was banned from now on, on that damned computer.

"Of course. I'd never say no Mikey, you know that."

As Mikey and Leo curled up in Leo's bed, Leo couldn't help but watch Mikey's innocent face. Mikey was curled into his plastron, obviously trying to ignore the disturbing thought of kids being left to drown, and being naively unaware of the fact that they were slowly sinking and going to drown; die. Leo had seen the video before, it made him disgusted that someone would do that. The pleas of those children… If it made him hurt this bad, he couldn't imagine what Mikey was feeling.

"I love you ototo. Don't forget our promise okay?"

"I love you too Ani. And, I promise."

"Goodnight."

"Goodnight."

Raph and Leo shared glances, since they'd woken up first, they had decided to share to each other their last night stories, and they both came up with the same solution to their problem.

"We're banning them from YouTube."
"Tha internet in general."

"Yep."

A/N:

I believe the ages in 2k14/2k16 universes are…

Mikey – 14

Don – 15

Raph and Leo – 16

Mikey just looks too small and Don I just want to be younger XD I would put Leo down as 17 but that could be a stretch considering (I think) Leo is shorter than Raph (Woah Raphie, growth spurts change everything don't they?)

Hope you enjoyed!