If you've been following my other story, I'm sure you've read the author's note over there. but sadly it applies to this story as well. I've been noticing a decrease in reviews on my stories, and it's not like I write for reviews, I write because it's fun. But I also want to write something you guys like, and I base the likeability on the amount of reviews (if that makes sense). So the less reviews I get, the more I feel like you aren't enjoying the story.
I have other stories I also want to write, and if people are not interested I may just end this one and start a new one. So if you do like the story, please let me know. Even a small review can let me know that you are enjoying the story. (And I hope people are)
TMNT
"Your scribble is the only thing that's missing right now" Don smiled, nudging Mikey's shoulder slightly, who in turn stiffens at the sudden contact, recoiling from his soon to be immediate older brother.
Mikey looks up, blue eyes shining with uncertainty. There were only three people in the room right now, me, Don and the girl that I met 2 weeks ago. After that the first time I met her, I'd seen her a couple of more times, often talking with her. She was 22 years old, in her fourth year of her study to become a doctor. Not a nurse, but a real doctor.
Her name was Aileen, and she moved here from Ireland when she was just 17. Her name was Irish after all. And from what I've gathered she was the only one who's had a real conversation with Mikey who worked here.
Raph wasn't here in Mikey's 'room' because he was waiting outside with dad, Jack and a few other people. Amongst them a few guards and the official doctor that often treated Mikey. And gave Aileen advice on what to do, and what to look for.
"Kiddo?" Aileen asked softly and Mikey scowls, his hand shaking slightly. "We talked about this, you want this, don't you?"
"I do" Mikey replies in a soft voice, looking directly at Aileen.
"Then write your name silly." She encouraged him with a smile, not pressing or pressuring him in any way. Just playful banter. Mikey smiled weakly at her.
"You sure?" He asks, and it takes me awhile to understand that he was directing the question towards Don and me.
"Totally, you're family. And this only makes it official" I declare, walking up to Mikey and my second youngest brother, putting a hand on either shoulder. The blond tenses significantly at the touch but I leave it there, on advice of Aileen. He needs to get used to this, the small little touches, and show of affection.
Not push him, but slowly ease him into it; just like we'd done with Raph.
There is a moment of hesitance before Mikey quietly and messily scribbles down his name on the adoption papers. Aileen smiled, putting a hand on Mikey's free shoulder and gently taking the paper from him.
"I'm proud of you, Mikey. You'll be happy with them, I promise" She says in a voice that was barely above a whisper. Aileen glances up at us, sending us a silent message to leave, and we complied without question. I freed Mikey's shoulder from my hand and took Don's arm in return, dragging him outside Mikey's room.
Don was the first one to exit the room, and I turned around to close the door. Catching a glimpse of Mikey sitting limp in the tight hug Aileen was giving him. Not initiating the hug, but not refusing it either. Which made me really happy, to see him trust somebody like that. And sad at the same that, with the fact that letting anyone hug you was considered an improvement in trust.
Not wanting to interrupt their privacy even more, I closed the door without making too much noise, turning around to face the few people that were in the common room. I ignored the few guards that were standing around, which was pointless to begin with. As if Mikey would run out of the building, and run away.
Maybe at his old.. home. But not here.
"He signed" I smile at my dad, who in turn smiled as well, letting out a relieved and shuddering breath. A few tears welled up but he quickly composed himself.
"Then I think it is time to welcome our newest addition member into our house" At his comment Raph snorts mockingly.
"Sorry dad, but he's already seen it."
Dad smiled and nodded "All true my son, but back then the house did not belong to him. And his room had not been finished yet" Raph sighs, leaning back against the couch he was currently sitting on.
"This shit is just so familiar" Raph mutters under his breath, folding his arms over his chest, turning his head away from all of us. .
"And that's a bad thing?" Don grins, letting himself fall on top of the couch, next to his immediate older brother. "I know what you mean but we're giving him a better life. A second change, just like you had"
"You're a dork" Raph retorts before roughly, yet playfully, pushing Don away from him. The banter went on for a few seconds before the door opened again, and Aileen walked out before shutting the door again. I was going to see where Mikey was but Aileen walked directly over to me, taking my arm and dragging me to the side.
"What's wrong?" I ask, worried eyes looking at her.
"Nothing new" She waves off. "Listen.. my boss will tell you everything of course but I wanted to tell you personally." She continues, releasing my arm with a sheepish grin.
"You know you're kinda scaring me right now."
"I intent to" She laughs before turning serious again. "You know why I've been treating Mikey these past weeks, and not my boss? A real doctor nonetheless"
I frown at the question, shaking my head with confusion written on my face. "I never thought about that actually" I hesitantly say.
Aileen sighs sadly, closing her eyes for a few seconds. "It's because of what happened. Can you imagine what it's like, losing your parents and then being forced into something like that by adults?" She starts and I'm too shocked to reply. "The brothel was an exception, they had rules, they kept tabs on their customers. The youngest customer he 'served' was 28, a full adult"
"So I've heard" I whisper and Aileen places a firm hand on my shoulder.
"What i'm trying to say is….. adults did this to him, and the only comfort he had were the other two teenage girls he was allowed to see when the brothel wasn't opened. He's gonna have a hard time trusting adults like he used to, and you're gonna have a hard time as well. Your father especially"
She stops for a second, both glancing at my dad standing on the other side of the room, glancing at us as well. And I give him a sly smile to assure him.
"Be there for him when Mikey isn't willing to, because it will happen, and you'll need to be there for both of them. Don't force him Leo, ease him into it. And just remember what I told you, and what you know from the report and previous experience" She says, and she doesn't need to say Raph's name for me to know she's talking about him.
"Now go help him pack, he's just as stubborn as you guys to admit he needs help" Aileen smiled before pushing me into the direction of the door.
TMNT
Raph's POV
"It ain't finished yet but at least there's no junk in it anymore" I tell Mikey, showing him his new room. Mikey looked around, taking a few hesitant steps into the room. "The left side still needs to be repainted and you will probably need more furniture"
At this Mikey looks at the lonely bed with a slight scowl on his face before looking at me with uncertainty. I shake my head with a smirk on my face, before taking Mikey's suitcase and placing it next to the twin bed that was placed on the right side.
"Look, the Autumn break is comin' up next week, and dad will be free a couple of days; ya up for some shopping?" I ask, eyeing at the bare room with déja vu. Just 5 years ago my room had looked exactly like this. Bare, without furniture, without a personal touch, unused after all these years.
At least Mikey was lucky enough that his visit was expected, and organised. We were ready to take him in and we had already bought him a new bed. We all had the same bed here, so it was easy to pick that piece of furniture, but apart from that, nothing was the same. So we wanted to leave it to Mikey to pick his own furniture.
"How did you do it?" He suddenly whispered, sitting down on the bed and looking at me with hopeful eyes.
My eyebrows knit together in confusion. "Did what?"
"Adapt to this, leave your shitty life behind? I mean from what i've heard your life sure wasn't a walk in the park"
At this I snort, biggest understatement of the year.
"Adapting wasn't either squirt" I say in all honesty, watching with a pang of guilt as his face falls. "But just go with the flow. We're all family here. Don't be afraid to show what ya think, or what's bothering you. I was a stubborn ass back then as well so I speak from experience unfortunately."
Mikey glares at me for the comment. "I'm not stubborn" he denies and I bark out a laugh.
"Sure" I smirk before quieting down. "Admit it when you want; or don't admit it, doesn't matter to me. But I can see you are, you're just like me."
The blond scowls, redirecting his gaze by looking out of the window instead.
"In all seriousness, don't follow my advice. Just go your own way here, don't push yourself into something yer not comfortable with but don't try to isolate yourself." I say, walking towards the door again. "And Mike? My life may not be as shitty as yours, but ya can come to me any time you want"
He doesn't reply however and keeps his gaze on the window, a sight that I was familiar with right now. A few seconds pass before the scowl, that had been permanently on his face since I showed him his room, slowly vanished but he doesn't say anything.
"We'll be ordering some pizza later probably, will you come down to eat with us?" I ask in vain, seconds pass and he doesn't say anything.
I sigh, knowing I wasn't getting anything out of him anymore and I semi closed the door, walking away and leaving him alone.
TMNT
I had only experienced one empty room when I was adopted, I took the second empty room. But Leo and Don had grown up with two empty bedrooms. The only similarity was the fact that we all had no idea what the empty rooms were for. They eventually learned that the third room had been for me, and now we knew that the fourth one was for Mikey.
It had been bad enough to lose two of your children on top of losing your wife, but he had unconsciously, or hopefully, bought a house with 5 bedrooms. One for him, and four for his sons. In the five years I had been here he had never explained his intentions, so I guessed it was a combination of both.
He refused to believe that two of his sons were gone. And he was still hopeful that they'd be found.
And with the latter he wasn't far off, just the age.
The house was relatively small, but still more than enough for us. It was in a relatively quiet part of Manhattan, still close to the center, but it wasn't as crowded as the absolute centre. The building was large, consisting of 14 floor. Every house in the building consisted of 2 floors, and there were several apartments on every floor.
We had the outer corner of the building, so two sides of our apartments were covered in windows. All our bedrooms had a view over the sea next to Manhattan and so did the livingroom and Dad's bedroom.
We had two floors, the upper floor consisted of 4 small bedrooms and two small bathrooms. Downstairs was dad's room, the living room and the kitchen combined and a study room.
"How's he settling?" Don immediately asked when I descended down the stairs. Leo was nowhere in sight and neither was dad, I knew the latter was still working but I had no idea where Leo was actually. Don was sitting on the couch, the tv on in front of him but his eyes were focused on me.
I sigh, walking over to him and letting myself fall down onto the couch. "Better than expected. Not like the squirt has anythin' to unpack" I snort. "Asked him if he wanted to go shopping next week with us, ya in?"
"Aren't I always?" Don grins in return and I roll my eyes at him.
"Why tha hell did I ask?!" I bite back while rolling my eyes.
The conversation falls silent afterwards. But neither minded as we silently continued to watch TV. Eventually Leo came home, and some time later so did dad.
But Mikey never came down to eat.
TMNT
A loud yell, agonising and piercing through the entire apartment, wakes them up hours later. Yoshi is the first one to be woken, but he isn't the first one out of bed, and certainly not the first one to reach his son's door. The cry resonated even through to his room, albeit vaguely, and it sent chills down his spine.
Raph was the first one to be at Mikey's room, closely followed by Leo and Don.
Raph stumbled slightly when he entered the room, greatly disoriented by being awakened so suddenly, but directly ran for the panting figure that was now upright in his bed.
"Mikey" Raph yelled, reaching the blond teen within seconds.
Raph's eyes widened, as wide as Mikey's were, as he saw his little brother. Sweat literally dripping down his forehead and as pale as a ghost. "Mikey" He said again, ignoring the presence of the rest of his family and he reached forwards, putting a comforting hand on Mikey's shoulder...
… only for it to be immediately slapped away.
"Don't touch me!" Mikey growled, scooting backwards until he was near the edge of his bed. It was then that they all grimly noticed that we was wearing his normal shirt he wore every day, now soaked with sweat in various places.
"Michelangelo" Yoshi quietly spoke up, brushing past Leo and Donnie to stand next to his second oldest son.
"Don't call me that, that's not my name" Mikey snapped, swinging his legs over the bed till he was standing on the ground. His chest was still rising and falling faster than normal, almost like he was hyperventilating and his limbs trembled too much to be holding his own weight, which wasn't much to begin with.
"Easy Mi-" Leo cut himself off. "Just take it easy, what happened?" Leo questioned, heart thumping in his chest and exhaustion clawing at his mind.
"You know damn well what happened" Mikey gritted through his clenched teeth, glaring at the floor beneath him. Leo shifted uneasily, looking at Donnie for help but Donnie was just as helpless and clueless as his oldest brother.
"We only want to help ya"
"And I don't need it!" Mikey yelled back and Yoshi took a small step forwards, reaching out for his youngest son but Mikey immediately recoiled. "I SAID DON'T TOUCH ME!" Mikey screamed in both anger and fear, leaping off the bed but crashing to his knees the moment he stood up.
He grunted painfully, bowing forwards and rubbing his knees angrily, tears streaming down his face.
Raph flinched harshly at Mikey's reaction, only 5 years ago that had been him. He may not remember everything perfectly, but he knew he had been screaming his head off. Slowly he dropped to one knee, reaching out one hand to touch Mikey's shoulder. Immediately Mikey recoiled, cringing and curling into himself.
"Please.. don't touch me" he mumbled, softly rocking himself back and forth.
"It's okay little bro, yer not … yer safe"
Slowly Mikey looked at Raph, tears streaming down his face in endless rivers. "Please" He uttered softly, and Raph slowly reached out to comfort Mikey again but again the blond recoiled. "Don't touch me, please. I want to be alone… please"
A few silent seconds passed, Raph's hand hovering in the air as if he was still waiting for Mikey to say it was okay to touch him, before the second oldest slowly got up. The family, except Mikey, watched as Raph pulled the covers off the bed, only to carefully wrap it around his youngest brother.
"I will be right next door squirt" He whispered so the rest of the family wouldn't hear him, before turning back to his family, silently gesturing to the door. There was a moment of hesitance but eventually they all turned around and left the room, including Raph, leaving Mikey all alone in his new room.
Because Raph understood; understood the reluctance Mikey had to show them his tears. It wasn't weird; Mikey didn't know them.
Of course he didn't trust them yet.
