I was listening to this song and I thought, "Gee, this could totally be Bentley's theme song or something." So I wrote this. It takes place... well, in an alternate universe or something. I dunno...
Disclaimer: I own Mercedes, and that's it. The song that I used... well, I have no idea of who the artist's name/band is; I've searched for a long while but I haven't found anything :( So if anyone could tell me I'd be very grateful.
Bentley bashed his head on his keyboard. A passing Sly and Murray raised their eyebrows at their friend. "What's up, little buddy?" the hippo asked.
"It's Mercedes, he's driving-"
"Your head into the keyboard?" Sly interjected.
Bentley continued on, ignoring the raccoon. "-me up the wall! This is the last straw!"
"What'd he do?" Murray asked, curious.
Bentley rubbed his forehead. "Ow, that hurt... What did he do?! He deleted all of the files on my computer, that's what!"
"You have backups, right?"
"Yeah, but that's beside the point! He deleted all of them! After that we need to get a new computer!"
Sly tried to defend Bentley's younger brother. "Hey, maybe it was an accident."
"He hates computers, Sly! Sure, you could consider him a genius, but he does everything on paper! So there would be no way he'd be on my computer and end up deleting those files without meaning to!"
"Woah, calm down Bent."
Bentley, however, was not listening to reason right then. He virtually stormed upstairs, flinging open the door that led to his brother's room. His anger, however, faded away, seeing him sitting on the windowsill, looking out the window, drawing something in a book on his lap. He looked over to where Bentley stood. Once, Mercedes had worn glasses much like Bentley's.
Now, he didn't need them.
His sightless eyes looked just over Bentley's head. "Thought I heard ya comin', Bent. What's up?"
Bentley smiled slightly and sat on the windowsill with his brother. "Not much, I guess."
Mercedes raised an eyebrow, following Bentley's movements with eerie precision. "So why were ya yellin'?"
Bentley looked surprised for a moment. "How...? ...Never mind."
Mercedes resumed drawing, still looking up at Bentley. "My ears are better 'n yours, Bent, or even Sly's. So what had you all worked up?"
Bentley realized right then that Mercedes definitely didn't do it. The guy hated computers, for one, and he barely knew how to use a mouse, let alone a keyboard. He loved to play jokes and be a general annoyance, true, but not in that way. And even if he did do it, well, brothers forgave and forgot, didn't they?
"Bent?"
"Oh, Sly was just being an idiot, like usual." he rolled his eyes, momentarily forgetting that Mercedes was blind.
Mercedes gave an odd little grin. "Hmm, aye, I get it." He fell silent.
As the silence stretched out Bentley asked. "So, what're you drawing?"
The younger turtle turned the book toward him. Bentley blinked in surprise.
"It's Carmelita, or it's supposed to be. Does it look like her?"
"Yeah, it's, wow, it's amazing, it looks exactly like her!"
Mercedes beamed. "Thanks, bro. I wasn't sure I got the details right."
"How did...?"
"I know what she looks like? Well, all you've gotta do is listen to Sly in his sleep and voila! Instant Carmelita."
Bentley shook his head in amusement, chuckling. "That's Sly, all right..."
Mercedes made a face. "You try sleepin' right next door to him with amazin' hearin'. It's a wonder I ever get any sleep." He shifted his position, allowing Bentley to sit beside him.
"How can you draw if you can't see the paper?"
"Well, I feel around the edges of the paper to see the area I have to draw on. Then, I picture what I'm going to draw in my head and it sort of goes from there."
"But how do you know where to add the details?"
"The paper feels a bit different where I've used graphite on it. It helps me go back and correct mistakes, too."
Bentley ran a finger over one of the pencil lines. "It feels the same to me."
Mercedes grinned. "I'm used to it, y'see. That's why I don't like computers, you can't feel what you've done on the screen."
"Makes sense." he looked over at his sixteen-year-old brother's face. "Umm, Mercedes? Can I ask you a bit of a personal question?"
"Ask away, Bent."
"How did you end up blind?"
Mercedes grinned wryly. "It was my fault, y'see. I was in grade 1, and I got into the science lab, wanted to see what was in there. I was a complete klutz, and I knocked over a shelf with chemicals on it... got the full spray in my eyes."
Bentley cringed slightly. "I'm sorry, Mercedes..."
His brother just waved it off. "Eh, it's not that bad, and besides, you didn't even know you had a brother then, considering you only just found out 'bout me when you paid one of your 'visits' to Happy Campers."
"You've got a point..."
There was silence for a while, until Mercedes grinned slyly. "Did you know, the first of April's tomorrow, and I thought we'd pull a bit of a prank on Sly..."
"Such as...?"
"Well... I was thinking something along the lines of waking him up with a pail of cold water..."
The brothers grinned evilly. "Hmm, sounds good..."
Next morning...
"Hey Carmelita, why are you carrying a pail...? Wait a moment, what are you- (censored censored)! BENTLEY! MERCEDES! I'M GONNA (censored) KILL YOU TWO!"
Bentley and Mercedes, the latter holding a pail in his hand, leaned on each other, running from the half-frozen, dripping wet, and rather angry Sly, laughing so hard that they were crying. "We have so got to do this next year." Bentley laughed.
"Except next time, let's put makeup on him and have a heist planned later on..."
You go right
I'll go left
Sometimes we don't agree
But that's okay cuz' in the end we're still brothers
You and me
I'll be there for you
I know you're there for me
Give me a high-five
Friends 'til the end
Can't you see that's the way it's gotta be