Brotherly bonds

A/N: Another story? Yeah, I know but I had this idea that wouldn't leave my head and I don't think that this story will be as eventful as my other stories. Mostly a story about two brothers and their friends and their lives in school. Some conflict, but not most of the time.

Now I should probably mention that I got some inspiration from a story called 'New Life' written by Bayluff and you should totally check it out, it's awesome! So, thanks for writing such a great story Bayfluff! Though I made some changes with my story, but still. This chapter is more of a prologue but the rest of the story will have more of a plot, if I chose to continue this story.

Hope you enjoy the story and please review, favorite and follow!

Chapter 1, Welcome home baby brother

My name is Raphael. I'm five years old and I live in a big penthouse with a great view over New York and as many toys as I could ask for. I'm also the only son to Oroku Saki, owner of Saki Industries and one of the richest self-employed men in America. Or at least, I used to be. That was until my mom, Tang Shen -and the best mother in the whole world and the kindest person I knew- came home from the hospital one day and told us that she was pregnant. Dad seemed to be pretty pleased about it and had given her a kiss right in front of me, even though they both knew I hated it when they did it when they did that.

I can't say that I was too happy about the idea. I was four when she told me that and it was September when she found out about it, so it meant that I wouldn't have to worry about a new sibling until the early summer, which I was somewhat happy about, but I was still angry and I wasn't exactly quiet about it. I wouldn't stop screaming and yelling and even started to throw plates at the wall, but then my dad slapped me across the face and sent me to my room. I had a hard time keeping my anger in check and both my mom and dad had tried to 'help' me in their own ways, but nothing ever seemed to work. I had just stomped over to my room and locked myself away in my room and stayed there for the rest of the day.

Mom tried to talk to me and said that maybe having a baby brother or sister would be exciting and fun, and maybe it would be cool to have someone who looked up to me and would look to me for answers. But I just shook my head stubbornly and crossed my arms over my chest. I had decided that the baby was nothing but bad news and I wasn't about to change my mind.

"No way! This kid is just gonna steal all the attention and Dad will forget all about me! I never asked for a little brother or sister, so why should I have to deal with one now?" Mom just shook her head at me and walked out of the room with her hand on her swollen stomach. She thought I was hopeless, I just knew she did, and thus gave up trying to reason with me. I groaned and started to play with a big red plastic dinosaur doll to get my mind off things.

I should probably say that my dad was a little bit aggressive sometimes. Most of the time he'd be at his office and work all the time, but when he was home he could be really nasty if things didn't go as he wanted them to. For example, he would yell, threaten and even hit me if I didn't do what he told me to. My mom tried to talk to him and I heard her threaten to call the police once, but that never happened. Because of this, I wasn't allowed to have any friends or go to kindergarten, since he thought that playing with other kids was a waste of time. With that being said, I wasn't that interested in having any friends.

As the months passed by and winter turned to spring and spring slowly turned to summer, I turned five years old in the middle of March and I got more and more upset about the baby. Mom had spent a bit of time painting the baby's room and had bought things like a crib made of dark brown wood, some toys, baby food and diapers. She had asked me what I thought would be a good color for the room's walls and while I despised the idea of a baby, I still liked that she asked me what I thought. I looked over the colors she had chosen and thought of it. Baby blue, olive green, galaxy purple and light yellow. I thought for a while and then said either purple or green. My mom then decided to buy a thick wall-to-wall carpet in an olive green shade and painted the walls purple, with my help, since she couldn't get everywhere with her big stomach.

Dad did little to nothing to prepare the baby's arrival, so I was a bit happy with the fact that I helped more than he did to prepare to house. Even though I still didn't like the idea of the baby.

And then, in the early days of June, my mom went into labor and Dad drove her to the hospital and called a babysitter for me. Her name was Veronica, she was sixteen years old, and she barely paid any attention to me. She just sat and read a thick book and every now and then she wrote something down in a notebook. She said that she was studying for an exam, but I didn't really know what that meant. I spent most of the time playing with my favorite toy, a stuffed turtle that mom had bought me for my second birthday.

A few hours later my parents came home, sending Veronica home, and Mom showed me my new baby brother, Donatello. My first thought was that he was small. Very small. His head was covered with thin, dark brown hair and he was currently sleeping. He wore a small white and blue striped hat, with the word 'hello' stitched over the forehead area.

"Isn't he cute?" She said with a smile, but I wrinkled my nose and said he looked kinda ugly. My father scolded me and sent me to my room for being rude and said I couldn't come out until I asked for forgiveness, but I was too stubborn to admit that I had lied to my parents. I had thought that he looked kinda cute, but I wasn't about to think that having a little brother was a good idea just because he was cute.

The next four months I did everything I could think of to avoid my baby brother. At dinner I would stare down at my plate and avoid looking up at all costs; except when I had to, of course. When the baby started to scream in the middle of the night, since the baby's room was very close to my room, I would wake up and wait for my mom or dad to get him. But one night, at around four in the morning, Donatello started to scream and I waited for about five minutes… but no one got up to take care of him. With a heavy groan I stood up and walked into my brother's room.

I was kinda happy that the floor was covered with a thick, soft carpet. It felt really nice against my bare feet as I walked up to the crib with the screaming little devil and I looked down on him with a scowl. There he lied in his dark purple baby pyjamas, looking like a little doll with big eyes and soft dark hair. I leaned my face over his and glared down at him.

"Could you just shut up? I'm trying to sleep here!" I said as loudly as I dared without waking anyone. The baby looked up at me with big, brown eyes and sniffled at me. I rolled my eyes, and with stiff arms and unwilling eyes I picked him up as carefully as I could and sat down in the rocking chair that mom had bought for when she had to feed him or get him to sleep. Donatello squirmed slightly in my arms and then he looked up at me with wide eyes. He giggled slightly at reached up his hands towards my face and tried to grab my hair, cheeks and nose.

I felt my heart soften as I looked at the small baby in my arms and I couldn't fight the smile that spread over my face. Suddenly I didn't see a monster that had come to ruin my life. I saw a small baby that just tried to live and didn't understand what was going on around him. I gently lowered my face towards him, letting him pat his hands over it. I couldn't help but laugh when he did and he managed to grab onto my black hair and tug lightly on it, though it didn't hurt that much.

"Hi, Donnie. My name's Raphael, and I'm your big brother." Donnie just laughed at me again and grabbed my nose with an innocent grin. I chuckled lightly and hugged him closer to me. That was when the door opened slightly and someone entered with slow and tired steps, but I was too busy cuddling with my baby brother to notice. A small gasp was heard and I looked at the door. My mom stood there, her dark hair was a tousled mess and one of the sleeves on the t-shirt she slept in, that was a few sizes too big, was hanging from her shoulder.

"Raph? I didn't think you..." She trailed off as a yawn interrupted her and I could see the circles under her eyes. I smiled and hugged my brother close to me again, making him squeal lightly and bury his face into my shoulder.

"You can go back to bed, Mom. I've got him." She smiled gratefully at me and kissed me on the forehead before she left the room and softly closed the door behind her. I turned back to Donnie, who had started to yawn and as his eyes started to close he once again nuzzled his face close to me and slowly fell asleep. I smiled lightly at him and carefully laid him back down in the crib and tucked the covers around him to keep him warm.

I got an idea and quietly ran back into my room. I picked up my stuffed turtle toy and ran back to Donnie. Gently, I put the turtle next to the boy in the crib and even if it was a bit too big from him to play with, I thought it would be a good peace offering between us, even if he didn't understand why I hadn't liked to be around him. I leaned down and rubbed his head with my nose. After a moment I snuck back into my room and went to sleep.

From that day on I spent as much time as I could with my brother. Both my mom and dad were surprised to see that I had changed my mind about the baby, but Mom seemed really happy about it and showed me how to feed him, change him, play with him and put him to bed. She did most of the work with him, like change his diapers, dress him and feed him. But as both he and I got bigger and older I began to do more and more to help mom with taking care of him. Dad had managed to coax Mom into start working again, saying that Donnie was in good hands and that she didn't have to worry. I had learned to make breakfast for myself since mom had to work, and she stored leftovers or made lunch the day before so I wouldn't starve and she also had baby food ready for Donnie to eat when he got hungry that was easy to heat up. I felt really grown up now that I was home alone, taking care of my brother.

I didn't understand it myself how my mind had changed so quickly about Donnie. One day I had hated him and then, by just holding him and letting him touch my face, he had managed to warm up my heart and make me want to be with him as much as I could. Dad didn't seem to care much about Donnie, so I decided to make sure he at least had some kind of male role model in his life, even if I was just a kid myself.

Donnie was growing quickly and he seemed to be smarter than most of the kids his age, or at least that's what my mother said (and she had worked with children for a long time, since she was a teacher at an elementary school). We would play everyday and Donnie loved it when I was around. The small, stuffed turtle I had given him that had once been my favorite toy was now his favorite toy, and I had no problem with giving it up. I had so many other toys and I didn't really miss the turtle since I still got to play with it sometimes when I played with Donnie.

One day, while I was sitting in Donnie's room and playing with colored blocks with him, he looked up from the green block in his hand and at me with wide, curious brown eyes, then smiled at me.

"What is it, Donnie?" I smiled at him and ruffled his now chocolate brown hair with a teasing look in my green eyes; he squealed in delight and tried to swat my hand away from his hair. His laughter was contagious; it was impossible not to laugh when he was laughing. But what he did next made me stop laughing at once.

"Waphie." I stared at him and leaned down, looking him in the eyes. He jumped back a little when I got so close to his face, but he still smiled, though not as brightly.

"What did you say? Can you say that again, Donnie?" He smiled and slammed his block down into the carpet several times in happiness.

"Waphie! Waphie!" I felt tears of happiness form in my eyes and I grabbed him, stood up and hugged him close while spinning him around in a circle as the both of us laughed. Well, I laughed, while Donnie sounded like he shrieked more than laughed, but he sounded happy nonetheless. I was beyond happy, my little brother's first word was my name. Sure, it wasn't my full name and his nickname for me sounded a bit silly, but still. Besides, he was just nine months old. I was about to put him down again, go get my mom and tell her about Donnie's first word, but then I remembered she was working. And dad was never home anymore so of course he wouldn't know. I had heard that most kids' first words were 'mom' or 'dad', but my brother's first word was my name.

I sat down in the rocking chair and hugged Donnie tightly to me, buried my face into his hair and tried to suppress my tears. Our mother wasn't here to hear her youngest son's first word, and our dad couldn't care less about either of us or mom for that matter. And for some reason that made me so angry that I felt tears form in my eyes, even though I couldn't understand why. Donnie squirmed lightly, put both his hands on my chest and tried to push himself away from my chest, but I didn't let him.

"Waphie!" I heard him whine and again he tried to squirm away from me, but I just hugged him tighter and whispered softly into his hair, while trying so hard not to cry.

"We're gonna be okay, Donnie. Whatever happens to us, I'll always be there for you, even when Mom and Dad aren't. I'll never leave you, ever. I promise" Donnie stopped trying to fight back and just relaxed in my grip. He wrapped his small arms around my neck and snuggled his face into the crook of my neck. After a few minutes I pulled Donnie out of the hug and placed him on my lap, letting him lean his head against my side as he closed his eyes with a sigh of contentment. I smiled down at my brother and softly rubbed my hand over his head.

A soft rumbling sound made me snap out of my relaxed state and I looked down at Donnie, who sat up straight and looked down; he placed his hand over his tummy, looked up at me with such innocent and hopeful eyes, and even a small smile. I grinned at him and poked him in his tummy with my forefinger, making him squirm a little and giggle softly.

"You hungry?" Donnie just smiled innocently and nodded. He had started to understand certain words and he knew what 'hungry' meant by now. I placed my hands around his waist, lifted him up and placed him on my shoulders. I felt him grab onto my hair to keep himself from falling down and I trotted away with him, out of the room and into the kitchen to give him some food.

I looked around in my room, under my desk; and then I stood up straight and looked around the room again, trying to spot my three-year old brother, who had hid himself somewhere in the apartment. We lived in one of the biggest penthouses here in New York so it was easy for a little kid like him to find a good hiding place.

Mom was working late tonight, which meant that I had to put Donnie to bed- which was easier said than done. Donnie would always try to hide when it was time for bed, and that meant that it was a pain to find him, prepare him for bed and then make him stay there.

"Where are you, you little rascal? It's time for bed, bro!" I heard a faint snicker from outside the room and I figured that he was somewhere out in the living room. I sneaked out into the big room and looked around for a good place Donnie would hide, and somewhere he also hadn't already used as a hiding place. He never used one hiding place twice, since he knew that I would keep track of all his hiding places.

I saw something dark blue stick out from under the couch and recognised it as denim. I grinned and quietly got down to my knees, reached in under the couch and then, with a quick yank, I pulled Donnie out from under the couch and held him by the ankles, letting him dangle upside down in my grip, while he laughed and shrieked at me. I laughed too and then threw him onto the couch, sat down over his legs and pinned him down into the pillows.

"Nice try, you little troublemaker. But today I am babysitting you, so you can't hide from me like you can from Mom, got it?" He giggled and tried to get away from me, even though he knew that I was five years older, much bigger and stronger than him and that resistance was futile. I grinned and started tickling his neck, making him squeal and laugh as he tried to push my hands away from him, but he was not strong enough to do so.

After a few minutes of tickle torture, I stopped tickling him and he sat up and tried to run away from me, but this time I was prepared and I managed to grab him around the waist and hold him close to my chest, trapping him in my tight grip.

"And where do you think you're going? Why are you in such a hurry?" Donnie giggled and kicked his legs and pushed on my arms, trying to get away.

"Raphie! Let go!" I shook my head and held him even tighter, without hurting him, and carried him over to the bathroom, placed him on the toilet and locked the door behind us so he couldn't run away again. But Donnie seemed to have decided to cooperate now and sat still on the toilet and watched me prepare a bath for him. Donnie would always make a fuss about going to bed, but he loved to bathe.

When I turned to Donnie after the bathtub was filled with water with a good enough temperature, I saw that he had started to try and remove his Kermit the Frog t-shirt, but I also noticed that he had a bit of trouble with it, so I knelt down beside him and gently pulled off his shirt and then proceeded to help him with his jeans and his socks, and he let me do that without resistance.

After a quick bath, Donnie let me brush his teeth and dress him in his pyjamas- a purple jacket with matching pants- and then he let me carry him to his room and tuck him into bed. He snuggled himself into the pillow and under the warm covers with a small sigh. Donnie then looked up at me and tried to look a little extra cute, if that was even possible.

"Raphie, can you read me a story?" I had already known he was going to ask. He asked me that every night, even if he had heard every story about twenty times over and rarely got anything new, since Dad was against wasting money on 'such trivial items' such as children's books or toys and said that Donnie just had to be pleased with the books he had. But every now and then after school, I would go and buy him a new book or a toy or something else for him without Dad ever knowing; Mom never said anything to him about it either. So I just smiled at him and said what I always said after he asked that question.

"Sure I can. But only if you promise to go to sleep afterwards." Donnie nodded eagerly and sat up. I walked over to my school bag and pulled out a new book that I had bought him today and came over to sit beside him on the bed. The only light was the small, red rocket-shaped lamp on the nightstand that gave the room enough light for me to see the words and for Donnie to see the pictures in the book. Donnie crawled in under my arm and leaned against my side, looking curiously at the new book. He had already learned to read a little, but only simple words, so he couldn't read the title. 'The Cat in the Hat', a Dr. Seuss book that I had heard once when I was a kid. I was at the hospital with my Mom at the time, but we didn't own it, obviously. I opened the book and started to read, as softly and gently as I could, so Donnie would fall asleep faster.

"The sun did not shine. It was too wet to play. So we sat in the house all that cold, cold, wet day. I sat there with Sally, we sat there, we two. And I said, 'how I wish we had something to do!'" As I read the book, I saw from the corner of my eye that Donnie's eyes began to fall more and more, but he tried so hard to stay awake and hear the whole story. It was kinda humorous to see him try so strenuously to stay awake.

…"And Sally and I did not know what to say. Should we tell her the things that went on there that day? Should we tell her about it? Now, what should we do? Well... what would you do if your mother asked you?" I closed the book and I saw that Donnie was barely awake; he yawned widely and rubbed his eyes wildly, trying to stay conscious. I chuckled and placed the book in the bookshelf beside the bed and kneeled down beside him, pushed him down on his pillow and tucked him in again.

"Okay, tough guy, time to sleep." Donnie nodded and snuggled his face into his pillow. He fell asleep almost instantly.

I smiled at him and kissed him lightly on the forehead. He looked so small and innocent now as he slept, and I still couldn't believe that I had been so bent on hating this kid. Now I loved him more than my own dad.

I turned off the light and walked out of the room as quietly as I could, closing the door softly behind me.

"Raph?" I was lying on my bed, reading a math book, trying to study for a test that was coming up, when I heard the small voice. I looked up from my book and at the door. My six-year old little brother stood there in his pyjamas and had his stuffed turtle in a tight grip. I put down the textbook on the nightstand and sat up in my bed. I was also ready to go to sleep, and was surprised to see that Donnie was still awake.

"What is it, Donnie? Nightmares?" He shook his head and looked down the corridor that led our parents' bedroom. And now I could hear screams from both our mom and dad and I realized what was wrong.

"Mommy and Daddy are fighting again." Donnie said and looked at me with tears in his eyes. "Can I sleep with you tonight?" He sounded shy and a little embarrassed even though I had told him over and over that he didn't have to be scared about asking these sorts of things. I smiled and moved over a little in my bed and patted the mattress beside me.

"Come here, bro. You know you're always welcome in here." He smiled through his tears, ran over to my bed and crawled in under the covers. I wrapped my arm around his shoulders and I felt him nuzzle his face in my shoulder and something wet trailed down my skin. It didn't take a genius to understand that Donnie was crying.

"Hey, come on, there's no need to cry. I know you don't like it when Mom and Dad fight, but you they'll make it work by tomorrow, right? And I'm here for you until then. You know that, right?" I felt Donnie nod into my shoulder, but I still felt his tears on my skin and how he shook when he sobbed. I placed my cheek on the top of his head and hugged him closer to me, letting him cry out his fear and sadness without trying to stop him since I knew that this was what he needed right now. After a few minutes his sobbing subsided and he looked up at me with his wide puppy eyes.

"Raph? Do you think we'll ever fight like Mommy and Daddy do now?" I looked down at him and smiled consolingly at him, drying his eyes with my thumb and stroking his hair as gently as I could.

"Well, I can't promise that we won't fight, Donnie. We are brothers and we won't always get along perfectly, and we will disagree about things, and we will argue too. But I can promise that we're not gonna fight like Mom and Dad do, because they have a hard time getting along in general, but we get along really well, don't we?" Donnie nodded into my shoulder and buried his face into my chest and shoulder again, making himself comfortable. I also felt a tad sleepy, but just as I was about to close my eyes, I heard Donnie whisper in my ear.

"Raph?" I looked down at Donnie, who looked like he was asleep; I assumed he was still awake since he had said my name.

"Yeah, what is it, Donnie?" He looked up at me again, smiled at me before he placed his head back on my shoulder and closed his eyes again.

"I love you, big brother." I smiled widely at my baby brother and hugged him close to me, kissed his forehead and pulled the covers over us both, laying my head on the pillow to go to sleep like my brother.

"I love you too, baby brother."

A/N: Done! I'm sorry if Raph is a bit out of character here, but the rest of the story I will try to give on specific personality, but I'm not so sure if I will continue this story so please tell me what you think. Should I continue the story or is this just great as a one-shot story?

Hope you liked this chapter and please review, favorite and follow! G'night everybody!