A/N: Two chapters in one day?! Wow! This one takes place where the boys are four or five years old, and I kinda wanted to focus on Mikey and Raph a little bit for this one!

Raising one child, Splinter mused, was hard enough, even with Tang Shen by his side. There were nights when young Miwa would wake in the late hours of the night and scream constantly, or nights when she would climb on top of him whilst he tried to sleep. More often than not, it was Tang Shen who was able to calm her down in the end, to which Hamato was oh so grateful for.

Now however, Tang Shen was no longer with him...and he had three times as many children to keep watch over, and they were not even fully human. There was four times the noise, four times the mess, four times the little fights he had to break up, all by himself.

Indeed, his life was no longer as simple, but he was by no means unhappy. No, in fact, it seemed that these four turtles, these four, five-year-olds that he had raised on his owm, had shone a new light into his once dark and empty life. He was thankful for that, at least.

However, it didn't mean they didn't give him severe headaches with their constant noise and bickering.

Out of the four brothers, Leonardo, his eldest son, and Donatello, his second youngest/third eldest son, were the easiest to handle. Of course, they had their moments, like whenever Donatello found something that interested him, he would wander off before Splinter found him again, and Leonardio could annoy his youngers with his commanding 'leader-like' behaviour that he had mimicked from that new telivision Captain Ryan, but other than that, the two were very well behaved young boys, hardly disobeying him, never late for their ninja training, and for Leonardo, oten the peace-keeper between the others.

Raphael and Michelangelo, however, were a completley different story...

"C'mon, Mikey!"

"Hold on, Raphie! I'm not as fast as you, I can't keep up!"

"Well, try harder!"

Raphael, the second eldest and shortest tempered of the brothers was leading Michelangelo, the youngest and most hyperactive, down the darkened sewer tunnels, searching for whatever 'adventure' they could find to amuse themselves with whilst Splinter was meditating, and Leonardo was watching that boring Space Heroes show, and Donatello was busy fixing their toy plane. It wasn't their fault they were bored; there was nothing fun to do at home, so why not go out and explore?

Since Mikey was still afraid of the dark, Raph held his younger brothers' hand as they trekked through the tunnles, deeper and deeper into darker, unfamiliar territory, which despite being the youngest and the one with the shortest attention span, Mikey noticed quickly.

"Raphie, we're not supposed to be here!" Mikey said, tugging on Raph's arm, "Daddy says that we can't go this far without him!"

Raph tugged his arm back with a growl. "So what? We're gunna be ninjas! Pretty soon, we won't need daddy to tell us what to do!" he argued, taking Mikey's hand again and leading the way. "And besides, we'll be back before anyone knows we were even gone!"

Mikey didn't argue this time, because he did have a point; they were going to be awesome, strong ninjas some day. They wouldn't need Splinter soon, so they could wander for as long and as far as they wanted!

Soon, the two young turtles found themselves at a dead end. Part of the subway had collapsed years ago, and had left nothing but a wall of broken concrete, metal bars and other sorts of trash. To others, it would have looked like a mess, but to the eyes of the two young turtles, it was one of the coolest things they had ever seen!

"Whooooooaaaa!" they breathed. "Let's get closer!" Raph urged, tugging Mikey along with him.

However, Mikey heard a creak and a groan benath his feet. THe ground looked loose, like it was about to crack under them, and he didn't like it. "Raphie! We'd better go!" he cried, "Raphie, I'm scared!"

Raph only waved him off. "Stoppit, Mikey! There's nothing to be afraid of!"

Suddenly, the floor collapsed underneath him, and he fell with a scream.

"RAPHIE!" Mikey shrieked, scrambling over to where his older brother had fallen, and peered down fearfully in the darkness. His wide blue eyes scanned the hole frantically, but he found no trace of his brother. Tears threatened to spill from his eyes as he began to panic. "Raph? Raphie, can you hear me?!" he called.

"...M-Mikey!" cried a terrified little voice, "Mikey! G-Get daddy! Hurry! P-Please!"

"But Raphie, I don't wanna leave you!"

"Mikey, go! P-Please!" Raph shouted back. He sounded so afraid, as if he were crying.

Raph needed his help! He had to go now!

"O-okay, Raphie! I-I'll be right back, I promise!" and without a second thought, Mikey ran as fast as his little legs would carry him, back the way they had come, not stopping once, even though his little lungs burned and his feet ached, he didn't stop until he saw the familiar lights of the lair.

"Sensei! Daddy!" he cried, "Daddy! Help! Raphie's in trouble!"

Instantly, Splinter, Leo and Donnie were at the entrance of the lair, and their father knelt down before his youngest, sobbing child as he tried to calm him down. "Michelangelo, hush now, my son," he soothed, "Where is Raphael?"

Mikey sniffed, "W-w-we were e-explorin' through the tunnles, a-and R-Raphie fell! Y-you gotta help daddy!"

Splinter shot to his feet and turned to his remaining two sons, "Leonardo, Donatello, you stay until I return!"

The other two nodded, and Splinter scooped up Michelangelo in his arms as he raced down the tunnels according to his sons' directions. Soon enough, he found the hole in which his son was trapped inside of, and he set Michelangelo down as he stepped over to it. "Raphael! Can you hear me, my son?!" he called down, his own heart thumping against his chest in fear.

"D-Daddy! H-Help me! T-They're gonna get me!" Raph screamed from below.

The sound of his son crying out to him broke the old rats' heart, but he wasted no time in jumping into the dark hole, and using his rat senses and vision to seek out his terrified little boy. The first thing he noticed upon his contact with the ground was that it was moving. And after his eyes adjusted in the darkness, he knew what had terrified his son so much.

Cockroaches.

Everywhere.

He let out a small shuder as the creatures scattered back into the darkness as he landed, and in one swift movement, he picked up his sniffling son, who latched onto him instantly, and leaped back out of the hole, and landed next to Michelangelo, who ran towards them and hugged them both as he sobbed. "Oh, Rsphie! You're alive!" he cried.

Raph was soon to folow as thick, hot tears streamed down his face as he held onto his father, not daring to let go for even a second. Splinter held both his sons close to him as he hushed them soothinlgy. "There there, my sons, hush now, It is alright, I am here now."

"D-daddy, we're so sorry!" Raph blubbered, "I-It was my idea! Mikey didn't wanna b-but - THEY WERE GONNA EAT ME, SENSEI!"

"Nothing is going to eat you as long as I am here, Raphael," Splinter said, cupping his child's face with his hands and looking him in the eyes, "but don't you ever go out like that again without my permission, understand?"

Both boys nodded, and he carried them both in his arms the rest of the way home. He punished them for their actions, of course, but not too harshly; they were scared beyond belief, and they only meant well. Besides, as a father, he couldn't find it in his heart to punish them too hard.

They never did venture out of the lair alone again after their grounding, much to Splinters' relief...

...but from that day forth, he would always hear a high pitched scream should a certain insect crawl into their home.