(5964 Words)

Donnie and Raph ended up staying at the police department for a while, waiting for Donnie's father to pick them up.

After their talk it went silent until Yoshi got there, the van stopping just in front of the building.

"He's here." Donnie says nudging Raph, waking him up.

Raph grunts and stands up with Donnie, the both of them going to the van.

"Hey." Leo says from the passengers seat of the van. "Hey." Donnie says with a tired smile. Raph trudges to the back of the van and sits.

"Hey dude, sorry 'bout everything..." Mikey says from the middle where Donnie sits across from him. "I had the watch, it broke and I just didn't say anything." He scratches the back of his neck, continuing. "I swear though, if I had known Leo was harassing you about it I would've said something!"

Raph nods, crossing his arms and leaning against the side of the car with his eyes closed.

Yoshi starts pulling away from the police station and driving back home.

Back at the Hamato residence Raphael enters the house and goes straight up to his room, nobody bothering to stop him.

"Um Dad, can I talk to you for a minute?" Donnie asks, scratching the back of his head. "Of course my son." Yoshi replies, walking into the living-room with Donnie.

"Dad, before I found Raph he was, uh, with a police officer and apparently he... wasn't doing so hot..." Yoshi gives Donnie a look as if saying 'go on.'

"Well the officer said he'd asked Raph if he was okay but he said no." Donnie explains. "I just- Do you know anything? I mean if you do, would you mind letting me in on it?"

Donnie hated being out of the loop on anything, especially things that concerned family.

"I do not think Raphael would like me spreading word of what has happened in his past, but he is troubled in many ways." Yoshi says, stroking his small beard. " I would like to commend you though on how you dealt with this whole situation."

Donnie looks up sharply in confusion.

"You rightfully did not accuse Raphael of stealing when Leonardo did, and you found him before anything serious happened."

Donnie bashfully pulls at his long hair. "Well um thank you... but he didn't exactly not steal anything."Yoshi cocks his head to the side with a 'hm?'

"He Uh, kinda took some bacon and hid it somewhere... I know it's not really stealing but I wasn't sure if I should've told you or not."

Yoshi chuckles and places a hand on Donnie's shoulder. "Donatello my son, it is fine. Now go off to bed, it is late and you have school in the morning."

"Alright, night." Donnie says. "Good night Donatello."

The next morning Raph woke up with a start, breathing heavily and sweating profusely.

"F-Fuck..." He breathes out, whipping the sweat off his forehead.

He swings his legs off the edge off the bed and puts his head in his hands. "Fucking nightmares." he whispers to himself.

'At least it wasn't a loud one this time.' he thinks, getting up off the bed.

Raph goes over to his dresser and pulls out some clean clothes, putting them on.

He stops at his door and takes a deep breath before he goes out, regaining his composure.

He walks down the hall, pretending that he didn't just have a terrible nightmare.

Raph lets out a startled gasp as he runs into- "Whoops sorry dude." Mikey backs off a little, hands up like he was afraid Raph would freak out again. "Whatever." Raph replies, walking away and down the stairs to the kitchen.

"Good morning Raphael." Yoshi greets as Raph walks into the kitchen. "Uh- Yeah, good morning." He sits down at the table and puts his head down on it.

"Not sleep well?" A new voice says. He looks up and there's Leo, holding a small pot of coffee. "Ugh." Raph groans, letting his head fall back to the table.

"Morning guys!" another voice says, overly cheerful for six in the morning. He doesn't even need to look when he hears a smack and a whiny "Ow!" to know that Mikey had just gotten smacked upside the head. He finally picks his head up at the smell of food.

"WAFFLES!" Mikey shouts, slapping down two on everybody's plates. Raph watches as Donnie, who had presumably been the one to smack Mikey, grabbed the pot of coffee from Leo and started to drink straight from it.

"Yo Donnie, that can't be good for you to drink that much coffee." Mikey says, sitting down at the table. Donnie just shrugs and chugs the coffee out of the pot.

"Hey, uh Raph, I just wanted to apologies for yesterday, I shouldn't have accused you of stealing when you said you didn't." Leo says, fidgeting with his hands.

Raph grabs his two dry waffles off his plate and gets up from the table.

"Wha- Where are you going?" Leo asks in shock.

"School. Got things to set up an' stuff." He leaves the room quickly, the rest of the Hamatos hearing the front door slam shut.

"Well, that went well." Donnie says sarcastically.

It was at least an hour later that the rest of the Hamatos got to the school. Donnie had checked what classes Raph would have since he transferred to their school.

"Hello Mrs. Lincoln." Donnie says, walking up to the receptionist's desk in front of the principle's office.

"Hello Donatello." A tall woman with chocolate brown hair says. "How can I help you today?" She says, her hazel eyes sparkling.

Donnie smiles. "Yeah, could you pull up Raphael's class schedule?" Mrs. Lincoln rolls over to the computer in her chair and starts typing. "Last name?" Donnie scratches the back of his neck. "Well, uh, I'm not really sure. He might be under Hamato."

The receptionist clicks a few times and then starts typing. "So Donatello, why do you need this Raphael's schedule?" Donnie leans on the counter and smiles "Why would you give me his schedule if you don't know why I want it ?"

She clicks once more and the printer behind her starts up.

"Because I know you and how much of a good kid you are." The printer finishes and she turns in her chair. "Donatello, could you grab it? My wheel is stuck."

"Sure" He walks around the counter and grabs the paper. He quickly walks over to the receptionist and bends down. "You really need to get a new wheel-chair Mrs. Lincoln." He un-sticks the wheel and she rolls back and forth a couple times. "Thank you, now It's almost time for class, you should probably get going, don't want to mess up that near perfect record." She smiles.

"Yeah, near perfect." Donnie mutters with a wave. He walks out of the office and back into the hall.

'let's see what he's got.' Donnie thinks as he looks at the paper.

' "first period, biology." Good, he'll have that with Mikey. "second period, Algebra"... Algebra sucks. "Third period,"'

"What?" Donnie says out loud.

He looks at the paper again, just to make sure he was seeing it right.

' "Spelling five with Mrs. Parks?"'

Donnie blinks down at the paper.

"Spelling five? And Mrs. Parks..." He says slowly. "That name sound so familiar..." Donnie's thoughts got cut off completely as the bell rings loudly in the hall. He quickly stuffs the paper into his pocket and rushes to his first class.

Mikey bounces in his seat. He, for once, got to class early.

He looks around as students start coming in.

The bell rings and more students file in. And right in the back was Raphael.

"Raph! Hey Raph! Over here!" He shouts excitedly, waving his arms in the air.

Raph rolls his eyes and walks over to Mikey's desk. "Hey." He says dully, sitting down in the desk next to him. "I can't believe we're in the same class! it's so cool!" Mikey says happily.

"Yeah, sure." Raph takes out a note book book from his bag and places it on his desk.

The class started quickly after, the teacher was a middle aged man who looked as if he was trying to win an award for least convincing comb over.

Throughout the class Mikey had poked and prodded Raph until he stomped on his foot to make him stop. "Mikey, stop it, I can't pay attention." he whispers. "Come in dude, it's not that hard. besides, you're taking notes so you don't have to really pay attention." Mikey points to Raph's note book.

Raph pulls his notes to the side and blocks the pages with his arm. "What ever." Mikey still had noticed Raph's sloppy handwriting. "Nice chicken scratch dude." He whispers, turning back to face the teacher.

Raph makes a low growl and looks down at his notes.

Yeah, they were sloppy but he didn't need somebody else telling him that.

The teacher says something that Raph assumes is important and goes to wright it down, but as the teacher continues to talk he looses track of what he was writing, it coming out instead something like 'A prokaryotic cell has five kingdoms in which the three domains contains a nucleus.'

"Shit." Raph whispers. He doesn't cross it out because you never know if some of that miss-matched sentence would be helpful.

This goes on for the whole class, though at times he'll get the correct words down on the page, most of the time It'll be unrecognizable as a sentence.

The bell rings and Raph sighs a breath of relief.

He picks up his things and starts to try and leave immediately but is stopped shortly after he gets up. "Hey Raph, wait up!"

He doesn't.

Out the door and into the hall he goes, trying to ignore the babbling Mikey rushing behind him.

"Hey Raph, what's your schedule, maybe we'll have other classes together." Raph continues walking to his locker and stops in front of it. "I've got Algebra next." He says. "And after that?"

Raph closes his locker quickly and turns away from The strawberry blond. "I don't have time for this." He walks down the hall, a bit faster that everyone else, to his next class.

There was no way he was going to let anyone see him come out of this class room.

Algebra had gone decently well, though the kid sitting behind him almost got him in trouble... Three times.

He had just finished his third period class and was now needing to get to his civics class.

Raph creeps around the corner carefully. His class had ended early so there wasn't many people in the halls, but there was enough that he couldn't just walk out freely.

He looks up and down the hall before dashing away from the doorway.

As soon as he was a decent amount of distance away from the room he lets out a relieved sigh and slows down, walking to his locker.

"Hey Raphael."

He jumps and spins around, almost inhumanly fast.

It was Leo.

Raph crosses his arms and shifts his weight to his left leg. "What do you want?" Leo walks up closer to him and tries to give Raph what he thinks is a reassuring smile. "I just wanted to see how it was going. First day at a new school and all." Raph waves one hand up dismissively. "It's going just dandy." He says with a hint of sarcasm in his voice.

He moves to walk away but Leo starts again. "Your class let out early?" Raph looks away, with a slight nervous blush on his cheeks. "Yeah, can I go now?" He says, not really asking a question.

"So uh, what class was it?" Leo asks, not letting him leave, walking around him and blocking his way. "Civics." Raph lies, trying to go around Leo.

Leo grabs Raph's wrist, tight but gentle.

"Are you sure because the only things that I know of that are down that hall way" He points to the direction Raph had come from. "Are the counselors office, the nurses office and the special needs classroom."

Raph pulls out of Leo's grip and glares at him. "Why do you care anyways?" Leo brings his hands up by his stomach, reaching out with his arms bent ninety degrees. "Because I want you to stop lying. Pretty much everything you've done while you were with us so far has been lying or a lie."

"Whatever." Raph says, just as the bell rings. "I gotta get to class."

"Raph wait." But he was already gone, covered by the hoard of people coming through the halls.

Civics had gone painfully slow, almost as if someone was driving a knife into his brain. Thankfully Raph had made it through alive and was now walking down the hall for lunch, his head swinging from side to side to make sure Leo was nowhere around. He just didn't feel like being by the guy right now.

He bumps into a boy, around his or Donnie's age, looking quite frazzled.

"Whoa, sorry." Raph says, noticing his uneasy demeanor. "It's no problem." the kid replies. 'Um, this might be an odd thing to ask a random stranger, but would you like to buy a turtle?"

Raph cocks his head to the side. "A turtle?"

"Yeah, not really buy but- Here, come over here for a second."

Intrigued, Raph follows the kid to a mostly empty hallway.

"So, um, I have this pet turtle and I need to get rid of him by tonight. I'd give him to you for free but you'd have to bring a bowl or something, maybe even a box. He's not a pet you'd really carry around."

Raph makes a face and crosses his arms.

"Please," The kid begs. "If I don't get rid of him by tonight my rent's are gonna send him down into the sewers."

He can almost feel the kid's pain. He really cared for this pet. Raph leans in and whispers "Fine, but I can't come get him until late tonight." He crinkles up his nose after getting so close to the kid. He had a bad smell to him, one that he had smelled before but couldn't place.

The kid sighs happily. "Thank you so much, you don't know how hard I've been trying to make sure He can be safe." Raph gives the kid a small smile and decides to get down to business. "I can get him around eleven thirty tonight. Do you have a good meeting place?"

He nods. "Yeah, do you know that ally about two blocks away from the school where that hobo kid used to live?"

Raph nods.

"Alright. The ally at eleven thirty tonight." Raph says before walking away to lunch.

Mikey was walking happily down the hall, ready for his favorite subject.

Lunch.

He stops when he sees Raph and some kid walking down a hall way together.

"Hey, I guess Raph already made a friend!" He quickly starts to go over to the two when he sees who the kid actually is.

It was Liam Marcus. The resident weed man.

"Shiiii-oot." Mikey whispers. He moves to a wall where he could watch them without being seen.

He couldn't hear much from his spot, all he heard was, "Box or something" "Not carry around" "Ally, two blocks away" "Eleven thirty" "tonight". But that was all Mikey needed to hear to know something was going down.

Raph turns around to leave and Mikey whisks out of sight.

"Raph..." He whines under his breath. "What are you doing?"

At lunch Mikey sits at a table away from his usual in hopes he'd be able to get Raph to talk.

Raph walks away from the lunch line with a tray of food, looking a little annoyed. "Raph! Hey yo Raph!" Mikey shouts across the lunch room.

"Yeash, this kid" Raph huffs, stalking over to him.

"Yeah?"

Mikey puts on a convincing smile and pats the bench next to him. "Come eat lunch with me." Raph rolls his eyes at Mikey and sits down across from him.

"So, how's your day going so far, do you like the school?" Mikey tries to keep his questions innocent, though he knew exactly what he wanted to ask. 'Are you going to get drugs tonight?'

"Uh... It's okay? What kind of questions are those?" Mikey shrugs and takes a bite of food. "Just wondering." Raph looks around a bit. "sure is loud in here..." Raph say trying to make small talk. "Yeah." Mikey tries to think of a way to ask Raph about the deal he had made.

I was silent for a while before Mikey thought of a way to bring it up.

Sort of.

"So have you met anybody interesting today?" He looks up from his food and straight into Raph's eyes. "There are tons of different type of people in this school, like George, he's an artist. Or Cathleen, she is totally into history, and Liam, he's... interesting."

Raph huffs and takes another bite of his lunch.

"I don't really know anybody's names here 'sept you guys." He looks at the clock. "I got to go." Raph stands up and walks to the garbage to dump his tray before leaving the lunch hall.

"Nice goin' Mike, totally didn't think that the guy wouldn't know people's names." Mikey says to himself under his breath.

The whole rest of the day went smoothly for all of the teens.

Mikey kept trying to get Raph to spill the beans about the deal he made every chance he got but Raph wasn't budging.

The two walked back to the house together. Well, Raph walked to the house. Mikey followed him, asking about the kid he saw Raph talking to. "Mikey, I told you already! I don't know any Liam Davis, now leave me alone!"

Raph waits for Mikey to unlock the door before storming in and going straight to his room.

Raph lets out a huge sigh, setting his bag down on the floor. He moves his hurt shoulder in a slow circle, stretching it out.

"Ah!" He hisses quietly.

Raph lays back on his bed. "so tired..." He sits back up and grabs his homework out of his bag.

Deciding to start on the hardest thing he pulls out his-

"RAPH!"

Raph jumps at his name being shouted so loud.

He puts a hand to his heart, trying to calm his breathing. "Y-Yeah?!" He calls back, cursing his small stutter.

"I wanna talk to you!" It was Donnie.

"Just a sec!" He yells, standing up from the bed and putting his homework back in the bag, walking as slow as he could to the door.

He opens the door only to come face to face with Donatello.

"yeah?"

Donnie fiddles with his hands. "I just um... I wanted to ask you something about school."

Raph rolls his eyes and crosses his arms. "If this is about that Liam Davis guy I don't know him." He says annoyed.

"What? No, It's, well, I was- now don't get mad, I was checking what classes you had at the office and I saw this class that I wasn't sure if it was a mistake or if it was just like a class you took or a misprint or something..." Donnie starts to ramble but stops himself.

He wasn't sure how to go about asking this kind of thing.

"Why do you take Spelling five?"

Raph has no idea how to answer. He stands, hand on the door, completely frozen.

He closes the door in Donatello's face as fast as he could.

Raph walks over to his bed and flops down. 'How can these people be so noisy!' He thinks to himself. He hears a knock at the door and Donnie calls his name again but he ignores it.

First Leo then Mikey and now Donnie? How can they get any more uncomfortable to be around?

"Raph! Hey dude d'ya wanna go boarding!?"

Raph groans.

He gets back up from his bed for what seemed like the millionth time and swings the door open. "Don't you have homework to do?"

Mikey holds up two skateboards, smiling. "I'll do it later. Lets go for a ride!"

Raph rolls his eyes. "You're assuming I know how to skate."

Mikey smirks "Dude." He points to Raph's exposed shins that were covered in bruises.

"yeah..." Raph says, trailing off.

It's not that it wasn't true.

Most of those bruises were from skateboarding.

"Sure, whatever." Raph grabs one of the boards from Mikey, walking out of the room.

"Sweet." Mikey says, following after the hot headed teen.

"Dude you should try to kick-flip over that bench!" Mikey calls over the sound of dual skateboards rolling across the uneven concrete.

They two had already been skating around town for a good four hours and the total amount of tricks Raph had attempted added up to zero. It wasn't that he didn't want to try or that he didn't want to show that he couldn't do any, it was that he didn't want to show that he could.

Raph gives another kick off his board to keep him rolling. "I dunno..."

Mikey jumps on top of the bench while his skateboard rolls underneath. "Why? You chicken?" He taunts, jumping back on his board.

This heats Raph's face, causing him to push harder, making him go faster. His gaze focuses on the bench.

Mikey watches in horrified amazement as Raph kicks off his board, popping it up and flicking it so that it spun. He made it over the bench but a unfortunate pile of gravel was waiting for him on the other side.

"Ahrg!" Raph cries out in pain. He skids across the gravel on his right side, scraping across the ground for three and a half feet.

"Awe dude!" Mikey shouts, picking up his skateboard and running over to Raph who was still on the ground, his already hurt left arm holding onto his freshly gashed right.

Mikey slides to the ground next to Raph. "Whoa! That was amazing!" He looks at Raph who has his eyes squeezed shut. "But dude, your arm is jacked up!"

Raph groans. "Yeah- Yeah, It is Mikey."

Mikey sits there, unsure of what to do.

"Do I call Donnie? He's bound to know what to do about this." Mikey thinks out loud.

"No, D-Don't call anyone. We'll- Ugh- We'll get in trouble." Raph says, trying to sit up. "Ah, it hurts. Hurts bad."

Mikey looks confused. "Why would we get in trouble? You just got hurt? I mean, maybe I'd get in trouble, but you'd be fine."

Raph pushes himself up to his knees. "No, No. I'm fine. We- I- Just let's go back to your house. I'll figure this out on my own." He struggles to stand up, looking at the blood stained gravel beneath him. "Damn."

Mikey grabs Raph's left arm to try and steady him. "Raph, dude, You are so not okay." Raph pulls his arm out of Mikey's grasp, not wanting to be touched. "Let's. Just. Go." He almost growls. Mikey backs off, hands up in surrender. "Fine dude, but I think they're gonna notice if you have a giant gash down your arm."

Raph grunts. "I'll figure it out."

He starts walking slowly back to the Hamato's house, trying to ignore Mikey's attempts to persuade him into calling his older brother.

The longer the two walked the harder it was to keep his groans of pain down and inaudible to the strawberry blond teen who was walking next to him. Raph stumbles on a unnoticed rock, causing him to have to catch himself on his bad arm.

"GOSH FUCKING DAMN IT!"

Mikey covers his ears.

"Wow, that was loud, and crude."

Raph stands up once more, trying to make sure he didn't trip again. "Yeah, sorry." Raph says, too tired to do anything anymore. "Are we almost there?"

"Yeah," Mikey says. "Almost there."

They walk in relative silence back to the Hamato's house, having only stumbled a few more times.

"So, what's your plan?" Mikey asks Raph.

"Uh... I- I don't know." Raph replies, at this point leaning heavily on Mikey for support. "Ah, screw it." Raph pushes off Mikey and goes to the door, finding out it was unlocked.

He walks inside, not looking for anyone who could be in the halls, and going straight to his room, closing the door so that nobody could see him.

"Raph" He hears Mikey whisper. "Go away Mikey. I've got this under control." He whispers back, locking his door.

He goes over to his single duffel bag that he had kept since he was ten years old and pulls out a first aid kit.

Raph opens his kit and takes out a roll of gauze and tape, applying them to his right arm. "There." He says triumphantly. He throws on a giant hoodie to cover the bandages. Feeling a pain in his right leg, he pulls up his pant leg, revealing another smaller gash going down his leg, starting at his mid calf and going all the way up.

He quickly pulls off his pants and does the same he did to his arm to his leg and puts on a new pair of sweatpants.

Happy with how he decided to hide his injuries, Raph looks at the small digital clock sitting on the dresser.

8:35 pm.

"Three hours... Maybe less because of..." Raph thinks aloud, trying to get his thoughts in order. He closes his eyes, pressing the palms of his hands into them. "Deep breath..." He whispers to himself.

He starts pacing around his room, even though he was barely able to stand without his legs shaking.

"Two and a half. Then I'll go."

In his two and a half hours Raph paces around his room, trying to figure out the best way to keep this secret away from the Hamatos. He eventually tries to get some of his homework done, figuring that he should at least try.

"Screw this."

Raph tosses his homework to the ground, laying back on the bed. He looks at the clock and bolts up.

11: 23 pm.

"Shit shit shit shit shit." Raph jumps out of bed and quickly sneaks out his door.

Mikey sits crouched in the dark kitchen door way, watching the stairs closely.

"It's almost eleven thirty, maybe he forgot... that sure would make my job easier." He whispers to himself.

Unfortunately this was not the case as Raphael walks silently out of his room and down the stairs, not noticing the teen watching him from the kitchen.

Raph looks around hastily before rushing out the door.

Mikey gets up from his spot, going as fast as he could after Raphael while trying to stay unnoticed.

Why doesn't he just go tell his brothers or his father? Because, Raph already seemed terrified of getting in trouble with them so actually getting him in trouble was quite possibly the worst idea you could have.

Mikey follows Raph down the street, watching as he stumbles every once and a while, seeming as if he had hurt his leg in his skating accident as well.

At one point he trips on a stray cat running across his path, causing him to fall on his left side, thankfully avoiding his fresh wounds. Mikey almost reveals himself to Raph, seeing him not get up for a good three minutes.

After he got up he picked up a box from next to a garbage can. It wasn't too big but not really a tiny box either.

To Mikey's distaste Raph makes it to the ally where he was to meet the druggy kid.

"Hey, You're late, couldn't get out or something?" It was Liam Davis.

"Something like that." Raph replies, walking up to the scrawny kid. "You got it?"

Liam nods and pulls out a satchel. "Yeah, got it right here."

Mikey watches from behind a building, his heart pounding in his chest.

Raph couldn't be getting drugs, and if he was...

Mikey tenses as Liam reaches into his bag and pulls out a-

"A turtle?" Mikey whispers.

"I brought a box." Raph says. "How come you kept him in a bag?"

Liam turns away from Raph a bit as he puts the turtle in the box. "Doesn't matter, he's your problem now." He says, walking away. Raph scrunches up his nose, Liam smelling of something completely offensive... and familiar.

Raph looks down at the small turtle in his box. The turtle peaks over the top of the box, looking at the retreating form of Liam. "Ah, he seemed like a douche anyways." He says to the turtle. "What should I call you... How's about... Spike." The turtle looks up at this. "I've always wanted a pet named Spike." He turns away to start walking back to the Hamato's.

"You'll be easy to hide too, I'd be able to take you with anywhere."

Mikey isn't sure if he should stop Raph at this point. He didn't really do anything wrong other than sneaking out and he himself had done that just now. Plus he didn't come out to get drugs, only to get a turtle, and that can't be so bad.

Raph stumbles, his right leg having given out for a second. "Shit! no!" He says, regaining his balance. "Ugh." He holds onto the box tightly. "I feel like I'm gonna be sick..." Raph sits down on a bench, clutching the box tightly to his stomach.

It hit him just then what Liam smelled like.

Cocaine.

As soon as Raph realizes what the smell was his grip tightens on the box, his eyes dilate and his breathing quickens. He can almost see it, like it was happening again. The man standing, towering above him. The way the smell filled the room and burned his nostrils. The feel of the man burning his bare chest with his drug.

Raph cant help it. He drops the box and pulls his knees up to his chest, even though he felt like the scars were burning once more. He covers his ears and stops breathing. He didn't want to smell it anymore.

He could taste it in his throat.

He feels a hand on his shoulder and he doesn't move. He doesn't want to make him mad.

"Raph?"

Don't make him mad.

"Raph."

He's going to get mad.

"Raph!"

NO!

Raph feels someone shaking him and he finally takes a deep gasp of breath.

"Oh my gosh Raph, dude, you have to breathe! breathing is kinda something you need to do."

Raph looks up, getting pulled out of his flash back by Mikey.

"What are y-you doing here?" He asks, trying to remain calm.

"I could as you the same thing." Mikey replies, picking up the box from the ground, making sure the turtle was okay.

Raph brings his legs back down and takes the box away from Mikey as fast as he could. "Ah, whatever." He looks down at the small turtle in the box, checking him over for injuries.

Raph's eyes widen a bit and his head snaps back up to Mikey. "Shit. Please don't tell anyone I snuck out, I-I-I-"

Mikey holds up a hand, stopping Raph. "I won't get you in trouble, I promise. Besides, If I told on you then how would I explain how I found out without me getting in trouble?" He shrugs.

Raph sighs, standing up. "Thanks."

Mikey rocks back on his heels. "Well, uh, it's getting kinda late, maybe we should get back."

Raph nods in agreement. "Yeah, maybe."

Mikey opens the front door of his house with his left arm, using his right to support Raph. " 'ight, it's like twelve thirty so everyone should be asleep. If anyone's awake it'd be Don and he'd be to preoccupied to notice anything."

Mikey opens the door all the way to see his two older brothers and father, all standing in the hall way, arms crossed and faces stern.

"Oh, heh heh. Hey guys..." Mikey says sheepishly.

Leo stands in the front of the group, not amused.

"What were you two doing?" Leo asks, arms crossed.

"Uh..." Mikey says.

Raph stays silent, holding onto the box and hoping to dissipate into the air.

Donnie steps forward. "Why were you two out so late?"

"Well, you see-"

Mikey catches Yoshi out of the corner of his eye. He looked so disappointed.

Mikey sighs. "I wanted to go late night skating at this park and Raph came out to stop me."

Both Raph and Mikey knew this was a lie but Mikey promised.

Yoshi steps in front of his two oldest sons and looks sternly at Mikey. "Michelangelo, you know better than sneaking out at night. No T.V. or video games for a week."

Mikey bows his head. "Yes Father."

"And Raphael." He says calmly. "If you find one of my boys sneaking out, please come directly to me."

Raph nods hesitantly, unsure of how to really deal with this. Mikey was lying for him? Why would he do that?

"Now off to bed all of you." Yoshi says.

Mikey starts to help Raph up the stairs but Yoshi stops them. "Raphael, what happened?"

Raph looks surprised. "Uh- I uh, just fell." He says quickly. Mikey getting the idea, helps him up to his room faster.

Mikey drops Raph on his bed and starts walking out.

"Thanks... for y'know, everything" Raph says gruffly.

Mikey looks back over his shoulder. "No problem, what are friends for? besides, we're teens, we're bound to do stupid things once and a while." Mikey walks out of the room, closing the door behind him.

Raph lies on his bed, staring up at the ceiling with the box sitting next to him, thinking about what had happened that night. He hadn't had a flashback like that in months. That particular one was one he tried to keep buried deep in the dark pit of his mind.

It was so embarrassing to have that in front of one of his new 'family' members.

Oh well, tomorrow's another day.

Because I'm on a permanent vacation
We're young, we're young
We're dumb and we don't care, no
And I don't owe an explanation
We're young, we're young
We're dumb and we don't care, no

Set It Off: Forever Stuck In Our Youth.

Hey! Sorry for not updating this much, school is really tough man. I hope you liked this chapter, tell me what you think and have a wonderful day!