Wild Nights
by TJ Hector
-Warnings:
Slight, implicit adult themes. And a sometimes un-macho Raph. Don't take it seriously guys, it's for fun.
-Summary:
Trivia concerning the Nightwatcher. Half-hearted seriousness of the nights after the Fearless One became the Jungle Boy in South America. Un-macho stuff, silliness and pain and pleasure of his solo career—this is definitely (not?) our dear crude brother.
-A/N:
Another one-shot about Raphael. You should know Raph is my favorite turtle by my profile image. This turns out into a not-at-all-serious/dark fiction, so enjoy! I've always wanted to write about the Nightwatcher and now I have the chance (another night staying up with sore limbs). Thank you for spending your precious time on this! Reviews shall be very appreciated!
-Disclaimer: I don't own Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. I just like to unleash my imagination...
God knows he liked music. He often listened to the raw, loud, and noisy (to some people maybe) rumble through his headphone while riding the bike in a crazy high speed through the night. This wasn't a bright choice since the traffic would sometimes be a threat to our intrepid Nightwatcher. It sounded stupid, but he actually got himself into trouble once. He sort of smashed into this guy's newly bought car and had to apologize—or shouting his apology like it was a threat. The guy backed off of course, thinking maybe the bulky metal creature would kill him or something. Most people just couldn't stand his charisma. He knew it only too well.
He was often recognized as a bad guy despite all his vigilante deeds. Sure, why not. He was already the bad son, the bad brother, and the bad student, et cetera. Now he was the bad good-guy. It was predictable. At first he had been sick of the people he saved running away from him, crying, (good to know they weren't running away because he was a freaky turtle-thing huh) just because the way he talked scared them even more than the purse-robbing, sexual-assaulting lowlife. But after a while he just got used to it. But, yeah, sometimes they still pissed him off.
Talking about pissing him off. A lot of things annoyed him, especially after the Fearless Leader was sent away. Well, the first few weeks were tough. He'd waked up at six a. m., feeling confused—surely he wasn't a using alarm clock kind of guy. And then he'd realizing there's nobody dragging him out of bed telling him to get up and train at six o' clock anymore. He'd go back to sleep afterwards. And there's the other thing: he would become restless and pace the lair two to three times a day before he figured out what he was doing—finding Leo. He was looking for Leo for a good argument or fight. What the hell was that? It was like he had been using Leo as a punching bag to release his stress or something. This antsy state annoyed him to no end. Oh, yeah. And there's Donnie, the stupid IT blah-blah support, money-earning, I'm-a-good-brother guy, who pestered him constantly about practically everything he didn't give a damn. Getting a job, changing his attitude, and reading some books that'd help you understand your issues better. How about getting married soon? It was as if the good old Don was possessed by Leo's evil spirit. God, is it contagious?
So, he slept whole day. Since Sensei had left him alone, he was happy to spend more time on himself, which means he could ignore Mikey and Donnie (they were occupied anyway) most of the time. He'd wake up in evening and eat breakfast (or everybody else's supper) or sometimes he'd just skip breakfast. And of course he got bored. So he'd use a little training as warm-up, and heading straight to the surface. That's how the Nightwatcher thing started.
He enjoyed it. But there were times he felt completely helpless and had no one to go to. Like the time he got grazed by a bullet on the arm. That overly warm night he went out without his armor—man was that a bad choice. He bled like hell and it would be lying to say he wasn't a bit scared at all. God was he terrified. He ran (the truth is that he limped nervously) all the way to Casey's friggin' apartment for help. He dared not go home and endure Doctor Donnie's endless nagging and Sensei's disproving glare and Mikey's hanging around saying it's so cool to get shot. And he was wrong about the guy. You'd think Casey was out fighting these gangstas all the time he'd know how to deal with a bullet wound. Wrong. They were panicking like little girls before they finally stopped the bleeding and he himself basically blacked out after Casey gave him a sheepish smile and said he didn't have any painkillers. He was proud of the wound afterwards. Geez was he a collector and lover of scars. And yeah, he was a macho. So he'd never mention the incident happened in Casey's bathroom. ("It ain't workin' Raph, I think yer goin' ta die!" "Geez quit screamin' an' do somethin' 'bout it!" "I'm givin' up an' leavin' it to the smart turtle…" "Don't you dare call Donnie! Shit, man…I think I'm gonna pass out…")
Oh but there were some nights when it was fun. He had this wild night with a nutty chick. They were drunk and were staggering in an alley before the girl turned around and choked him with an insanely tight embrace and invited him to her apartment. They had met in a bar and he told her some stories of his fights with some thugs. The girl must have thought he was a boxer or something. She kept giggling and ordered drinks until she was numb and couldn't tell the difference between a man and a man-size turtle. She adored him so much and it just felt so fresh to him. He didn't want to leave her in the morning, but it was the only choice—he wouldn't be glad to see the girl who had described him as 'amazing', 'untamed' and 'naughty' waking up screaming and cursing and kicking him out of her window. But he's gonna remember her for a long time. Man, he was secretly a very sappy guy.
So overall the life of the Nightwatcher was wild. When he decided to give up the career, he wasn't exactly forced or unwilling; he needed a retirement anyway. And Leo's back being his punching bad again so he didn't have to find some ways to blow off steams anymore. Everything was bound to go back to normal. Of course nothing would be the same, but he missed the old times. There was some kind of nostalgia in that. He always thought he'd be better off solo; however, he tried and found out that actually it wasn't quite like that. It had its moments, sure. But guess you just miss the family life, your nagging, nerdy and silly brothers and all. Gotta balance your outrageous solo adventures with some solid reality and boring family reunion for a change.
—The end.