Authors Note: Hey guys, this is my first fanfiction ever! Sorry if its bad, but I tried LOL. This is the first of many in a large collection of one-shots of the TMNT growing up and having adventures and just being kids (or turtle tots). I am going to try to do as many as possible. For this one-shot, I based it on the 2012 series and decided to write it about how little Raphael found Spike. The turtles are around age seven here. I hope you guys enjoy!
Disclaimer: This is just for fun and I have no intention to profit from this. Also, I don't own TMNT.
A Turtle's Bestfriend
Ever since Raphael was little, he was never easy to read. He always had the most hidden emotions of his brothers and was often misunderstood.
He was blamed the most out of all of his brothers in their household, whether it was one of his brothers getting hit by him or a certain mean or rude comment that was said towards the others, but in the end, Raphael got in trouble the most. He always thought that it was unfair. They had always said the same mean things to him or said things to him that he took harshly and made him lose control. Why did it always have to be this way?
Raphael did get angry at times, but it wasn't his fault. Though he was always trying to be the toughest out of the brothers, nobody knew that out of all of them he was the most sensitive. He had taken fights with his brothers seriously and always sulking about them after, thinking about what was said to him and what he said to make him seem like the bad guy.
Raph knew that he was sensitive about things, and he didn't like it. He hated the idea of him being weak. Being vulnerable. Never being able to be taken seriously because of his so-called 'emotional state'. It was because of this that Raphael had always tried to be the tough one in the family. Even at a younger age he knew that he never wanted to be treated like a baby, treated like he was weak and emotional, like his little brother Mikey who showed it often. He never wanted anyone, not even his father, to know his emotions and know his way of thinking, so he kept his emotions deep down and locked away.
With his tough guy figure, came his tough guy act. He was always tough at heart, the strongest even. He cared about his family very much, so he had thought that he had to be the one protecting them and making sure they were always fine, always safe.
Even though he had secured his spot as the strong one, not just physically but emotionally as well, he cared about his brothers very much even if he fought with them all the time. His brothers probably saw him just as their hotheaded brother, but he was so much more than that.
Even though his emotions were never easily read, the only one that shined right through him and the one that they always knew him for, was his anger. No matter how hard Raphael tried to keep his other emotions hidden and successfully done so, he had never been good at keeping his anger in. He had shown it time and time again, which was what labeled him as 'bad' by his brothers. Even though they never really said it, he knew they thought it.
After any fight, he had always used his anger. Even when he was younger than he was right now, he would go to his bedroom, slam the door, lay on his bad, and sulk about it. He was always the victim, the test subject. It was like they were always trying to test his anger and see how mad they could make him. They saw it as a joke sometimes, and others they didn't. Why they thought they could play with his emotions like that, even if they didn't know that's what they were doing showed how ignorant they could be. It was very upsetting to Raphael, but after every fight and argument, everything would be forgotten and forgiven. Raphael did not think that way though. He had been forced to apologize, but he almost never meant it. Sometimes he did and sometimes he didn't. After all, he wasn't always at fault, but his anger had made him seem like he was. Again, it wasn't fair.
And here he was, little Raphael, walking around the sewer tunnels after storming out of the liar because of an argument with his older brother Leonardo. After what seemed like hours of screaming and shouting at each other, Raphael had the last word and stormed out of the lair wanting to be alone. Many different thoughts swarmed his head while he walked, fists clenched by his side without him acknowledging or intending to.
He didn't want to fight today but he wasn't just going to sit back and be treated like garbage by his big brother while being accused of something that he didn't do. Of course, whenever Raph and Leo had a fight it was always hot and heated and it always resulted in one of the two storming the room or going somewhere else, and it was usually Raphael.
The clearly upset turtle walked down the sewers for what seemed like forever, but Raph didn't mind. Being alone seemed good, comforting even. Although Raphael did like alone time from his brothers, he did wish that he could talk to someone about his thoughts. Someone to share everything to, and have them not judge you like your family would. Someone like...a friend.
Raphael frowned. He knew that dream was impossible. He was a mutant turtle, nobody would want to be his friend. They would just call him a freak of nature, something disgusting, a monster. He had to accept the fact that he would never be apart of the human world, or have a human friend. Maybe one day, maybe one day.
Raph continued to walk, his thoughts of anger settling down finally. He walked down the side of the sewers, being careful not to step in the gross water. His head turned to the left to look at it, then tilted down to see his little green feet. He continued to look down for a few moments when suddenly he noticed that something was crawling dangerously close to his foot. Not just anything though, a gross, fat, creepy looking cockroach was crawling straight at him, until Raphael let off a faint scream of terror and fled off.
Raph ran away from the cockroach as fast as he could and didn't stop. He might have been overreacting but he couldn't help it, it was his fear and he couldn't deny it. He ran and ran until-
SPLASH
The little red-clad turtle tripped and fell face first into the gross sewer what that he had been avoiding. Raphael sat up, rubbed his head with his right hand and opened his green eyes ever so slightly to see that something was next to him. A small little turtle was right beside him, eyes looking directly at his.
"Hey, there little guy," Raphael said softly to the tiny creature as he took his green hands and scooped him up gently. "You're kinda cute." Raphael gave him a faint smile.
The young mutant turtle took a few minutes for admiring the small creature he found, that was clearly a small baby turtle. While holding the turtle, thoughts about why the creature didn't look like him circled his subconscious, but he didn't really put much thought into it, and nor did he care. After looking at the turtle, he noticed the turtle was clearly thin and looked a little ill. Since he lived in the sewers he probably didn't have that much food.
Raphael finally realized that it was time to go home. The others were probably worried about where he was right about now, so Raphael set the small turtle back on the ground and stood up, but as soon as he stood, he paused. Raphael looked down over his shoulder to see the small turtle looking straight at him, head tilted slightly.
"I bet the others and Sensei wouldn't mind if I brought you home," Raphael talked reassuringly to the small creature before picking him up again.
"You will like it there buddy, it's really nice. We have lots of food and I can watch over you and make sure your happy all the time!"
Raph walked in the direction of the lair and talked to his possible new pet turtle and friend. Raphael talked and talked so nicely, the nicest he has ever been to another thing to show affection in a long time.
"I hope Sensei will let you stay with me," Raphael anticipated to his new little friend with a hint of hope and optimism in his young voice. "It's nice talking to something that can't argue back or yell at me for something I said or did, and just have someone listening to me for once. I never could talk about my problems with any of my brothers, but you, I think I can be myself."
Almost to the lair where the four turtles and rat lived, Raphael gently carried the little creature down the sewer tunnels in his small green hands.
"Well, if I keep you, buddy, I can't just keep calling you buddy. Your gonna need a good and cool name," Raphael said before going into a semi-deep thought. "Well, I could name you Spike or something cool like that...Spike…thats what Ill call you! It's perfect! You like that name don't you Spike?" Raphael rubbed the little turtle's-Spike's, head gently and a big smile on Raphael's face formed.
In the living room of the lair sat three of the other mutant turtles, all watching the tv together.
"Hey Leo, when is Raph coming back? He left a while ago," Donatello wondered to his older brother.
"I don't know, but he'll probably be back soon Donnie," Leo responded with also adding a shrug, never taking his eyes off the tv show all three were watching.
"Leo he's usually back by now. You were a little hard on this time," Donnie stated.
"What if something happened to Raph out there, like he was eaten by a sewer monster or something?! What would we do?!" Mikey joined in, now totally freaking out about because of his thought.
Leo patted his little shell in a way of reassurance. "Don't worry Mikey, he'll be fine. He always is."
All of the sudden, a fast-paced Raphael walked right past his three brothers without acknowledging them. He hadn't stopped to look at his brother's because there was only one thing was on his mind: Asking and pleading his reasons to his father of if and why he could keep Spike.
Almost to the dojo, a faint sound of, 'Hey Raph' that appeared to be said by Donatello was heard, but Raphael was too busy thinking about what he was going to say to his sensei, to answer with a 'hi' back.
Raphael got to the dojos large doors and gently knocked on them, trying not to sound demanding. "Sensei, could I talk to you for a minute?"
A few moments later, the tall rat opened the door and looked down to see his second oldest son, with what it appeared to be a small turtle in his hands. "Yes, you may Raphael. Come in," Splinter told his son with a somewhat confused look on his face.
Raphael walked in shyly while Master Splinter shut the doors of the dojo all the way before turning around to talk with his green-eyed son.
"Sensei, after Leo and I had a fight, I stormed out of the lair and was wandering around in the sewer tunnels trying to cool off, and then I saw a cockroach and ran off and tripped. I landed in the gross sewer water accidentally, and I looked to my side and I saw this little fella, and I was uh...I was wondering if it would be okay if I would, you know, keep him and have him stay here with me...?" Raphael asked shyly with a hint of nervousness in his voice that was clearly recognizable. He looked at the little turtle, trying to avoid any eye contact with his father in case he gave him the news that he didn't want to here. Raphael gave in and couldn't help but look up to see what his father's expression was. He was unable to read his expression but saw that he was thinking about what he just asked.
"I just thought that this little guy looked a little thin and considering that he was living in the sewer alone, that he might not get that much food to eat. He is a turtle and I have always wanted a pet to believe it or not, but I knew it would be impossible to ask for one," Raphael spoke again.
Raphael gave into looking at what his father's expression again and saw his father give him a slight smile. "Yes Raphael, you may keep your turtle," Splinter told his son, who after hearing the news immediately gave a big smile of pure excitement at the news. "But, you must understand that with a pet, comes great responsibility, and you are the one to take care of your pet. Nobody else, not even your brothers because this is your job. He is yours after all."
Raphael continued smiling and told his adoptive father, "Hai Sensei."
"You must also pick out a name for your turtle, anything you want would be fine," Master Splinter said to his excited son who was already about to exit the dojo.
"I already did Sensei. His name is Spike."
"Spike, what a good name choice my son," Splinter cheered.
Raph was about to open the doors to exit, but instead, he stopped and turned around to face his father. He set Spike on the carpet of the dojo and walked quickly to his dad and threw his arms around him. Splinter was surprised by the sudden show of affection because his second son usually never showed any kind of affection like this. Because of his sudden shock, he had forgotten to return the embrace for a few moments but softly and quickly returned it.
"Thank you for letting me keep him. It means a lot," Raphael said, sounding really embarrassed before quickly exiting the dojo after gently picking up Spike.
Raphael held Spike in his arms and walked to the kitchen, still not that interested in interacting with his brothers. He set Spike down on the countertop and opened the refrigerator looking for any healthy food that his newly found pet could eat. He searched every drawer and finally saw some fresh lettuce, riped of a piece, turned on the water at the sink, and washed the lettuce followed by drying it off carefully. Raphael might have only been seven, but he definitely wasn't stupid, so he cleaned it off and then started to feed his little pet bite by bite.
"Where did you find that?"
The sudden voice made Raph jump in shock and look to his right clearly annoyed after the sudden scare, go see his three brothers staring in confusion at the small turtle on top of the counter.
"This is Spike, my pet turtle. I found him when I was in the sewer tunnels and thought that he needed a good home," Raphael told them all proudly even though his brothers were still giving him looks of shock and confusion.
The red-clad turtle kept on feeding his little pet lettuce piece by piece when Leo spoke up. "Does Sensei know that you're keeping him?"
Raphael rolled his eyes. "Do you really think I'm that stupid Leo? Of course, I asked him! He said I could keep him as long as I am responsible for him, so that means that none of you get to touch or interact with him unless I say so!" Raphael was mainly looking at Mikey when he said that last part.
Mikey suddenly dropped the look of confusion and hurried over to admire the little turtle on the countertop. "He's so cute! Can I hold him? Please, Raph? Please?" Mikey without really waiting for the answer to his pleads brought up his hand and was about to touch Spike, but Raphael quickly slapped it semi-hard which caused Mikey to rub his wrist that was slapped with his other hand. That pretty much answered Mikey's question.
The three other young mutant turtles came to conclusions and just went back to the living room to continue what they were doing. It wasn't a big deal to them anyway.
After Raph finished feeding Spike his lettuce leaf, he carried him to his room and closed the door like he always does. He set Spike on his bed while he dug through a pile of junk he hadn't thrown away yet, to find a box that was somewhat bigger than the new pet. Raph took off the top and took some scissors to cut the front side of the box off, and then took a rarely used small blanket of his and folded it into the shape of a rectangle, almost perfectly the size of the bottom of the box. He set the blanket down and made it look nice before moving it on the table top right next to his bed.
"I made you a bed. Do you like it? It's not much but I worked with what I had," Raphael shrugged and just assumed that he liked it. He put Spike on the bed and he seemed to be comfortable with it which made Raph smile.
Raphael and his brothers never figured out where Spike had come from and how he got in the sewers, but Raph didn't care. He found him in the first place, and that's all that mattered to him.
Even though Spike didn't talk, he listened. Listened to all of Raph's problems and thoughts, and that's all Raphael wanted. Someone to understand him, and that's what Spike did for him every day. And from that day on, Spike was Raphael's best friend.
I hope you guys liked it! Feel free to comment if you liked it, or share any kind of feedback with me, like constructive criticism so I can try to improve my writing. I'll try to update this collection of one-shots as soon as I can. Thanks for reading!