Chapter 2: Frosty the Snowman

A/N: So here's the next chapter in this little tale. As I said before, this one is all about Raph and how he's handling the whole holiday cheer thing. Thanks to all of those who have read and reviewed thus far. Your kind words mean the world to me. I hope you enjoy this chapter as well.

Disclaimer: TMNT belongs to Nickelodeon. I only own the plot of the story and nothing more.

Raphael wasn't in a good mood right now. He couldn't stand the annoying Christmas music that was blaring from Mikey's room. Why did Mikey have to go and do something like that? It's not like there was anything to be cheerful about with April gone. He continued to batter the punching bag, trying to drown out the annoying song about having a holly jolly Christmas. Yeah, that wasn't going to happen any time soon. As much as he tried, he couldn't ignore the song and figured it would be best to get out of the Lair for a bit.

"I'm going for a run!" he yelled. "I'll be back later!"

No one responded, but that didn't surprise Raph in the slightest. Everything had changed since April had vanished and no one wanted to hang out with him anymore. He exited the Lair and headed topside, figuring he would hang out with his friend, Lucindra Monroe. He hadn't seen her in a while, and since she didn't have the best family life, he figured it would be nice for her to have someone to hang out with during this time of year. He approached her apartment window and knocked on it. At first he thought she wasn't home, but then she appeared and opened the window so he could climb in.

"I was hopin' you'd show up, Raph," she said. "Come on in."

"Hey,Cindra, how's it goin'?"

"Not too bad. It's just me, myself, and I here, and that's the way I like it for the most part. What about you?"

"Same as always," replied Raph. "I just had to get out for a while. Mikey's been playin' that damn Christmas music, and it just gets on my nerves."

Lucindra laughed. "Yeah, I hear you there," she said. "Sometimes that music just pisses me off. It's like they're tellin' us we gotta be happy this time of year when there's nothin' to be happy about. Why can't they just leave us alone and let us be miserable?"

"Because they don't want you to be miserable on Christmas," answered Raph. "It's just so stupid anyway. The whole concept is just dumb. Once a year we're supposed to be happy, but every day after that, there's no joy and no one gives a shit. I don't give a shit if some dude was born on Christmas. If this dude was such a miracle worker as the humans claim, why the hell are people sufferin' needlessly while this dude and his dad just sit by and let it happen? As far as I'm concerned, it's all bullshit and people need to stop buyin' into it."

"I totally get that," she agreed. "I had some religious nuts visit me the other day, sayin' that if I just had faith, I'd be saved. I told them that I haven't been saved in a long time, and if there's a God up above, he's doin' a piss poor job of helpin' me out, so I'd rather not worship some selfish bastard like that. They didn't take too kindly to that, but I don't much care."

"Good for you, Cindra," Raph praised her. "I'd probably tell them the same thing and maybe try to throw them out. People like that make me sick anyway. I wonder how they'd react to someone like me."

She laughed. "They'd probably say you were from the devil."

"Yeah, I'm just full of mischief, ain't I?" He sighed. "I just wish things were different. April's been gone for seven months, and we haven't found a trace of her."

"Yeah, that's gotta suck," Lucindra said. "You think the police are givin' up on it?"

"I hope not, but you never know with them. Sometimes I think they just go through the motions and then the other times they just look the other way 'cause they don't want the bother of tryin' to do a good job."

Lucindra got up and poured two cups of eggnog before handing one to Raph. "You ever have eggnog before, Raph?"

"No, I can't say that I have. If we're lucky, we'd always have hot chocolate if Splinter could find some." He took a sip of the eggnog and let the flavors wash over his tongue. "Hey, that's pretty good!"

"I'm glad you like it. It's one of my favorite drinks." She took a sip and then her eyes brightened. "You know, I have an idea of somethin' we could do."

"What's that?"

"Well, I haven't built a snowman in a long time since I was a kid, and I figured that with you here we could do a good job of it. You wanna try?"

"Yeah, I'd love that!" Raph exclaimed.

"Did you ever build a snowman before?"

"Lots of times when we were allowed to go up to the surface. Before that, we never really had a chance to do that. Last time I did it was when April was around." His eyes glazed over as he flashed back to that day.

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"So where are you taking us, April?" Mikey asked her.

"I can't tell you that or it wouldn't be a surprise," April replied with a smile. "Just keep going."

"It better not be somethin' stupid," Raph grumbled. "If it is, then I'm out."

"Oh, you'll love it, Raph, I promise," April reassured him.

"April would never steer us wrong," Don declared.

Raph rolled his eyes. Sometimes he didn't understand Don's fixation with the human girl. It wasn't like they had girls chasing them all over the place.

"Here we are!" April cried as she stopped on a rooftop.

"Okay, what are we doing up here, April?" Leo asked her.

"We're going to build a snowman," she answered and pointed to the piles of snow that littered the rooftop.

"Sweet!" Mikey cheered. "I've always wanted to do somethin' like that!"

"You guys have never built a snowman before?" April asked incredulously.

"Nope," Leo replied. "We never got the chance when we were kids because Sensei didn't want us going up to the surface."

"Then it's about time you did one," April declared. She gathered up the snow and molded it into balls. Then the Turtles helped her roll them to the spot she wanted and then piled them on to make the snowman. They carved out two eyes, a nose, and a mouth since they didn't have button eyes or a carrot on them. As they worked April hummed "Frosty the Snowman" and Mikey joined her.

"You know, Splinter should have named Raph Frosty since he's so angry," the orange-banded Turtle joked.

"Oh, I'll show you who's Frosty," Raph countered as he tackled his younger brother.

"Guys, be careful!" Leo cautioned. "You don't want to ruin the snowman."

Neither brother answered him as they continued to wrestle. The match ended when Raph buried Mikey in snow and held him down.

"Okay, okay, I give!" Mikey yelled.

Raph let him up and returned to helping with the snowman while Mikey wiped the snow off before joining them.

When they were done, they stood back to admire their work.

"Not bad," Leo commented. "He looks pretty good."

"Yeah, he really does look neat," Don added.

"So what should we name him?" April asked.

"We shouldn't name him at all," Raph replied. "He's a snowman, not a person."

"I say we name him Bob," Mikey said.

"Bob doesn't sound right for a snowman," Leo argued. "Maybe we should name him Yoshi in honor of Splinter."

"I think we should name him Albert after Albert Einstein," Don said. "He's probably a very intelligent snowman."

"What do you think, April?" Leo asked her.

"Those are all good names," she replied. "It would be hard to choose which one suits him."

"How about Chuck?" Raph asked.

"You want to name him Chuck?" Don asked. "Why?"

"'Cause he's all scrawny and looks like a loser," he replied. "You know, like that kid who can never kick the football in those comics and on TV."

"Oh, you mean Charlie Brown," April said.

"Yeah, that guy."

"I like it," April declared. "What do you guys think?"

"I think that sounds fine," Leo said.

"I guess I can live with it," Don added.

Mikey pouted. "I still like Bob better." Raph raised his fist as though he was going to hit Mikey, who quickly backpedaled. "But Chuck sounds cool. Yeah, we'll go with Chuck."

With that settled, the teens left Chuck and headed back home. But each day after that, they always made it a point to visit Chuck and make sure he was still there.

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"Raph, what are you thinkin' about?" Lucindra asked him.

Raph smiled and told her about when they'd built a snowman with April. She laughed after he was finished and thought it was cute.

"So did Chuck survive?"

"No, some kids came and messed him up. I was so mad at them and wanted to pound them."

"Did you make a new snowman after that?"

"No, we never got to do it after that. Winter was too fierce, so we mostly stayed inside. It was fun though."

"Well, now we can have another snowman to build."

So the two of them went on the roof and built the snowman, though Raph wanted it changed to a snowwoman. Lucindra agreed and they set to work. As a joke, Lucindra got one of her bras out and put it on the snowwoman, which made Raph laugh. When they were done, they stood back to admire their work.

"I think she looks good," Lucindra commented.

"Yeah, she does," Raph agreed.

"Any thoughts on a name?"

"Yeah, let's call her April."

"Sounds good. Welcome to the world, April."

The two of them stayed up there for a short time before Raph decided it was time to go back home. He promised he'd visit Lucindra again next week and headed back to the Lair. Everyone was in their own rooms, and Mikey still had his radio going. But this time, it played a tune Raph was familiar with, and he smiled and quietly hummed along before heading to his room. Things weren't the same without April, but at least they had the memories, and they could create new ones with their new friends. Mikey eventually shut off his radio as he got ready for bed, and Raph smiled and closed his eyes. He figured that tomorrow he would introduce his family to the snowwoman he created and see what they thought of it. He couldn't wait to see their reactions and the smiles on their faces when they saw April. They'd probably be happy that Raph remembered something like that. With that last thought in his head, Raph settled to sleep, visions of his brothers and April building a snowman in his head.

A/N: And another chapter is done. I had a lot of fun with this one. We actually did make a snowman and named him Chuck once, but he sadly melted. We tried to revive him, but it didn't work. Feel free to leave a review and have a shelltastic day.