How to take care of your turtle
Prologue
He grumbles lowly as he digs through his pockets in search of his keys while brushing of his shoes on the door mat at the same time. The lock clicks open with a soft sound and the male sneaks into his apartment as quietly as he can manage which isn't very quiet since he manages to stub his big toe on the old wooden drawer in the hallway. He curses under his breath and tries to sneak-hop into his living room without causing a complete ruckus.
The man takes a quick look around and sighs in relieve. Luckily there's no red-masked turtle chilling on his couch to greet him back from a day at April's, so he throws the brown paper bag that he was hiding behind his back moments ago careless onto the worn out sofa. After fetching himself bottled water from the fridge his thoughts go back to his best friend.
Casey never minded that Raphael forced his way into his home to wait for him or simply chill there. Even though there were countless of times where Raph scared him plainly shitless because he appeared out of nowhere when he was at the scariest part of whatever flick he was watching and tapped his shoulder with a dark green finger.
There were far fewer times however, where he came home to a moody teenage turtle huddled up on his couch waiting for his return. These occurrences had been more recent lately, he discovers in a short moment of thoughtfulness. The rising hormone levels seemed to make living at the lair simply hell.
The human understands the turtle. He doesn't have siblings himself, but he can't still believe that living with three other brothers isn't exactly a piece of cake and he certainly didn't mind being around his unusual friend more often than before although the more recent visits began to worry him just a little. He often feels bad when he can't come up with any good advice, but tries to listen as best as he can which is an almost impossible task most of the time. It's not because the green one likes to talk his ears off- in fact it's the complete opposite.
Raphael is hard to get started on his problems. He may not have the same body as a human, but he sure shares the same emotions even if he doesn't like to let that on. Instead he covers it up with aggression and anger- a reaction Casey knew all too well himself. The male knows that beating up people doesn't solve anything; at least that's what April says and she is one hell of a smart girl, but it helped to live with oneself.
When all you are is a freak and people you just saved from a horrible fate scream as they catch a good look at you, there is a lot of anger and the general feeling of injustice and the human can only guess how much that has to hurt, but when your own family begins to turn against you too there really wasn't much holding the other up anymore.
Somehow Casey liked it that Raph came to him instead of April to find comfort.
Speaking of April- he visited her today, seeking advice from her. After all Casey's worried about the ninjas, especially Raph. While screwing the lid back onto the top of his bottled water, his gaze fixes on the brown paper bag lying beside him on the couch.
After setting the bottle down at the table, he grabs old of the bag and pulls out its contents. There is a small book in it. The male turns it over in his hand, studying the front of it absentmindly. "How to take care of your terrapin" It read in big bold letters and then smaller and cursive beneath it. "A beginner's guide to keep your pet happy".
Somehow he can't help but doubt that asking April for advice wasn't that useful after all.