(1,194 words)

Young Raphael, only just ten years of age, stands in the doorway to the kitchen of his current foster family, arms crossed and head pounding. A slightly larger woman with medium length blond hair was washing dishes in the sink and yelling angrily. At this point Raph was used to this kind of thing. It didn't seem that bad compared to past families he was with, but it wasn't the best on his mental health.

"This is all just an attack on you Raphael, Satan is going to pry at you the most because of your past. There is nothing wrong with you, none of this would be a problem if you would just pray more." The woman rants. Raph rolls his eyes. "Yeah, yeah, I've been praying okay? Not everything is, or has to be a spiritual thing okay?"

The woman shuts off the water and spins around. "Raphael." She says sharply. "What?! I'm just saying, I do what you want, but sometimes you're a little unreasonable." Raph replies. He hadn't learned not to say things like this yet. He thought since this had been a decent house before... "I can't believe you would say that! What, now you want to play for satan's baseball team?! You need to pray about this, you've been so ungrateful for what I do for you."

Raph tenses up, gripping his arms tighter and tighter by the second. "I'm not doing anything wrong here, and I know what is wrong. Just because I'm not an exact duplicate of you doesn't mean I'm evil or something!" Raph tries to hold back his frustration but it doesn't work. "In fact, I don't think you are doing things right!" Raph points a finger at the woman as her face turns red.

"You always tell me how wrong I am about everything and you never believe me when I try and tell you about my problems and you make fun of me then for having them!" Raph spews. "DO NOT TALK TO ME LIKE THAT!" The woman screams. "You're making me feel like such a failure as a parent and it's not even my fault! I'm sorry you feel this way, but you're just getting this from being online all the time!"

The woman's eyes fill with tears. "People online are telling you how horrible I am after you exaggerate every little thing that happens! You're just too sensitive and then people are making you think I'm hurting you! I love you, I know you better than you know myself! I'm not hurting you, you're hurting me!" Raph takes a reflexive step back. "I'm hurting you?"

Steam was practically pouring out of the boy's ears. "What the fuck!? Yeah, maybe I read online that the things you say aren't okay, but that doesn't mean it's not real!" Raph stomps up to his room and sits on the bed, pulling his knees up with him. "Why can't she just fucking hit me so someone will fucking believe me." Raph grumbles to himself.

He feels his eyes sting with tears and he grabs his arms across his body, digging his nails into his arms. His heart starts pounding and slowly all feeling in his hands leaves him. He knew what this was, he knew he had to stay calm, but- Oh god, he couldn't breathe. Minutes fly by and finally he calms down, just before the doorbell rings.

He hears the muffled voices downstairs and the thuds of someone walking up them shortly after. There was a knock at the door and it swings open. Raph sits up quickly, wiping his face clean of the halfway dried tears. In the doorway stood Greg, his social worker, there for a quick check in as he does every month. Raph had forgotten this was today.

"Hey buddy." Greg says cautiously. "Whats up?" Raph glances at the doorway where the woman stood, arms crossed and a frown planted firmly on her face. "Nothin'." He says, crossing his arms. "Well, I heard that you've been getting into little scuffles here and there." Greg says, putting a hand on Raph's shoulder. Raph frowns. "I guess." He mumbles.

The woman was still standing in the doorway and Raph impulsively stands up and closes the door in her face, pushing his dresser in front of the door partially. There wasn't a lock on his door anymore. Raph rushes back to Greg and wraps his arms around him. "I wanna go, I wanna go, I wanna go. I-I hate it here, they- she hates me. She blames me for everything."

Greg, taken aback, hugs him back, rubbing the small boy's back. "Hey, hey, hey, buddy... It's okay..." Greg takes a look at the door and back at Raph. He lets out a breath and lets the boy start to cry into his chest. He had only seen him break down like this one other time, and with all that he'd been through, he was pretty tough.

Most of the time Raph would ask to leave a family if they were physically abusive or neglectful to an extreme, but this was the first time he'd asked to leave for something like this. Not that it wasn't a valid reason, but Greg was just surprised at the boy. "I don't know-" He starts, but Raph cuts him off. "If you don't take me out of here, I'm running away."

Greg sighs. "Raph, you know you can't do that." Raph shakes his head. "I have to, I have to." He pushes himself away and stands up. "Okay. Can you last one more week? One week and I'll see what I can do, okay?" Greg whispers, knowing that the woman would be right outside the door. Raph stands still for a moment until he nods.

"Just one week?" He asks, rubbing his small arm clean of the finger nail marks he had left there. "Just one week." Greg confirms. Raph shoves his hands in his pockets and keeps his eyes on the floor. "Promise?" He asks, his voice higher than before. Greg holds back a laugh. "I promise on my life." Greg reaches over and gives his arm a reassuring squeeze. "Okay." Raph says.

"Okay."

I needed to write something vent-y so this happened... Almost everything that the "woman" said is things my mom has said to me. It really hurts, and there was more I couldn't integrate into this that has happened and I wish I could write it out, but I also wanted to be sensible in the story. I'm not sure if I can count this as cannon to the main story, but maybe semi cannon...

Anyways, I hope you enjoyed this little angst-y Greg filled oneshot, I'm not sure why I wrote this and didn't just work on the main story, but I did, so oh well.