(6688 words)
The door to the hamato house hold opens up, three tired teens walking inside, followed by an old man. "And now you know why it is important to keep pizza off the training mats." The old man says, as if he was finishing a long lecture you'd be glad to have missed out on.
"Okay, okay, I said I'm sorry." Mikey groans. He gets three feet into the house before he trips on something. "OW!" He shouts as he connects with the floor.
"What the-?" He looks to his left and quickly covers his mouth to stifle any giggles that might eep out.
On the floor was Raphael, sound asleep, his phone in his hand and flashing the symbol for it being dead on the screen for only a few more seconds before it dies completely.
"Adorable!" Mikey coos, standing up and snapping a picture on his own phone. "Blackmail."
Leo and Donnie both look at the odd scene with confusion.
"Uh, Father, what should we do?" Leo says, turning to Yoshi. The man hums and strokes his beard for a moment. "We shall just wake him up. It seems the most logical path."
"I don't think that's a great idea, He was up all night." Donnie interjects, his eyes focused on his father and his finger up as if raising a tiny hand. "Uh- Father." He says, trying to make what he said more respectable. "He might not be able to go back to sleep."
"Well, we can't just leave him in the middle of the hall." Leo says, crossing his arms. Mikey pops up beside Leo and pokes him in the side of his head. "Why be cause it's a 'fire hazard'?" He says, making air quotes.
"No, because it's rude to leave people who are knocked out on the floor and not do anything about it." Leo watches as Mikey stares at him skeptically. "Okay, okay, It's a little bit because it's a fire hazard!"
"We could try moving him, there's enough of us to be able to lift him." Donnie suggests as Mikey crouches back down by Raph.
"I wonder what he was doing here in the first place." Mikey reaches out his hand to poke Raph's cheek. "I bet he was waiting for us to get back" He chuckles.
Karma decides it's time to pay Mikey a visit because as his finger is only a few inches from Raph's face He snaps his eyes open and grabs Mikey's wrist, his grip growing tighter and tighter. "Uh, guys?!" Mikey says, wincing as the grip gets painful.
Leo looks down at Mikey, his bored expression quick turning to one of confusion then surprise. "I think he's awake." He says, placing a hand on Donnie's shoulder.
Donnie looks down along side Leo in surprise. Raph had a death grip on Mikey's wrist, his eyes open wide though, glazed over lightly. He squeezes Mikey's wrist harder and Mikey squeaks in reply.
Yoshi shoes Leo and Donnie away from the two youngest teens and bends his old knees, sitting on his heals beside them. "Raphael, can you hear me?"
Raph gives little to no acknowledgement to Yoshi that he knew he was there. The most noticeable thing was that His grip tightens once more and his eyes shift back and forth before resting in the same spot as before, shaking the slightest bit.
"Raphael, let go of Michelangelo please." He says calmly.
Within seconds the grip Raph had on Mikey loosens, slowly but surely. Once Mikey can feel it was loose enough he pulls his hand out, rubbing the bright red grip mark on his wrist with a frown on his face.
Yoshi notices Raph's hand still up and gently pushes it down, making sure it rested at his side. "Come to the living-room, will you now." He says, pulling him up. Raph stands up, Yoshi supporting most of his weight as the other teens look on in curiosity.
They hobble to the living-room, Raph not making any noise except his slow breathing. Yoshi lays Raph on the couch facing the doorway, making sure to put his arms on top of his chest in a more comfortable position than a plank.
The not sleeping teens pear into the living-room from the doorway, watching as Yoshi lays a blanket over top of Raph.
Raph shakes as if he were freezing. "You are safe." Yoshi says, his voice calm and steady. He pushes some of Raph's hair out of his face, Starting to rub his shoulder comfortingly. Slowly The shaking settles down and Raph's eyes drift closed. Yoshi sits by him for a moment before standing up and walking towards the door way. He somehow grabs onto all three of his son's ears and drags them all into the kitchen, setting them down one by one and giving them a stern look.
"I know you boys are curious but you need to learn to keep to yourself. Not everything is your business because you're around someone more than others are." Yoshi lectures. "I am disappointed in how much you three have been snooping in Raphael's business." They don't question how he knew how nosy they were being even though the majority of the nosing around was at school. He just knows.
"Now off to your rooms, all of you." Yoshi commands, pointing out towards the stairs.
Donnie leaves without any problems, Mikey following quickly after. Leo on the other hand stays in the kitchen. "But father, we're just trying to keep an eye on him. He's... Not the most stable of people y'know?" Yoshi's eyes narrow slightly. "And what makes you say that?
"Father, He just woke up and was crushing Mikey's arm! For no reason!" Leo finishes, throwing his hands in the air.
"Raphael may be troubled, but that gives you no right to snoop in his business. Now go to your room." Yoshi commands. "If there is something troubling you about him you may come to me but do not try and handle things on your own. It may in fact start making things worse."
Leo looks down at his shoes. "Hai chichi." He says before leaving the room. Yoshi watches him leave and moves back to the living-room. Raph lies on the couch, his hands slightly twitching.
The older man sighs and kneels on the floor next to the couch containing the teen.
Maybe he was in over his head. He thought he could handle this case. He'd gone through all of the normal teenager things and some of the non normal ones. This was just a lot to deal with. Raphael was in fact a messed up kid. There was a lot going through his head all his past, his future...
Yoshi rubs his eyes and tries to still the shaking boy's hands with his own. He couldn't just let this boy go back to the home he came from. From the way the social worker was talking it seemed as if this would be the first good home he would've had.
Yoshi pets his hair down, watching the boy sleep. He already felt like he was his own son, he could not let him go.
Raph wakes up, shooting up from the couch. "Wha- where?" He swings his legs off the couch and runs his fingers through his hair. "Oh. Oh..." He says, rubbing his temple. He gets off the couch and stumbles slightly as he gets up.
Raph creeps around the corner, dashing past the open kitchen doorway and up to his room.
He closes the door, turning the nob before shutting it. He turns around, walking into the room. He looks at the dresser next to the bed, his eyes focusing on the tan box moving jerkily towards the edge of the dresser.
"Spike." Raph breathes out. He dashes to the dresser and catches the box just as it was about to fall off the edge. "What are you doing little guy? You're gonna get yourself hurt or killed." He takes the small turtle out of the box and holds him in his hands, petting the top of his green head. "I'm sorry I was gonna leave without you. I wasn't thinking."
He puts the box on his bed and sets the turtle back in it. "See you later little guy." Raph says, pulling on a clean sweatshirt over-top of his second day shirt. He cautiously opens his door out of habit and steps out into the hallway.
He knows he should probably shower and do other hygiene like things but He didn't want to go through the stress of the bathroom again.
He creeps down the stairs, his back to the wall. He can hear voices from the kitchen talking and he waits outside, just barley able to see inside the room.
"This dude texted me and said to just not come today." A voice says exasperated, as if he had just repeated himself
"And when have we ever listened to some random person you got a text from?"
"There was that one time-" The same first voice says.
"No. We will never, ever do that again."
"I swear, I never thought I'd have to think about getting mayonnaise and super glue out of my hair."
The room goes silent and Raph decides it was a good time to enter the the kitchen. "Hey." He says quietly. As he sits down at the table he feels a wave of tiredness wash over him.
"Hey Raph." Mikey says cheerfully. The other two brothers look wearily at him but both give him adequate 'hellos'.
There was still silence until the tall man, Yoshi, enters the kitchen. "Boys, why are you not at school?" He asks.
Donnie speaks up, stepping forward. "Father, Mikey said he got a text from a friend that said to not even come today. We told him to ask the guy what that meant but he didn't answer."
Mikey twists in his seat to be looking at Yoshi head on. "Hey, Kyle is a respectable dude! If it was important, he'd tell me. No lie." Donnie waves him off and grabs a bag from the floor. "Well I'm leaving, you do what you want. I'm not going to be late."
Donnie walks out of the kitchen, not waiting for anyone.
"Donnie's right, School or no school, we should probably go. Just in case." Leo says, picking up his own bag. Mikey groans but follows suit. Raph watches them leave the kitchen and lets his head drop to the table. He felt like he just kept getting more and more tired.
"You better get going Raphael, you wouldn't want to be late." Yoshi says with his hands behind his back. Raph picks his head up and scoots his chair out. "'Kay..." He says without a fight. He goes back upstairs, quickly grabbing his backpack and slipping on his shoes and going out the front door, still groggy.
He could see the brothers down the street, walking at a decent pace. Raph wasn't sure if he wanted to try and run to catch up to them or just walk behind. He tries to jog for a few feet but his leg immediately protests, sending a throbbing pain up and into his spine. "Ooo... Bad idea, bad idea..." Raph mumbles to himself, instead hobbling down the street.
He keeps walking for a while alone, his leg feeling like it was ripping apart from the first run he tried. He stops at a bench, taking deep breaths. He can see the three brothers ahead of him getting further and further away. He sees Leo look behind him, stopping for a moment. The other two seem to ask him something and they keep walking, Leo turning around and walking back towards Raph.
'Great.' Raph thinks. 'Now he's gonna come and dig up all in my business.'
Leo reaches where Raph was resting and Raph immediately goes on the defensive. "Go mind your own busine-" Leo stops him, helping him up and letting him use the other as a support. He doesn't ask anything, he doesn't dig into what was going on, he just helps him down the street. They don't talk at all, not until they reach the school.
As they walk up to the school they could see a crowd of students all outside. Raph spots Donnie and Mikey who had arrived just a few minutes before they had. He walks over to the two, both turning around just as he walked up to them. "So, what's goin' on here?" Raph asks. Leo walks up behind the small group. "Is it an early fire drill?"
Mikey shakes his head, his curls bouncing. "Na man!, I told you guys, Kyle said not to come, we shouldnt've come." Donnie crosses his arms and glares over at nothing. "It's a gas leak, the whole school is closed for the day."
Raph looks at Donnie, confused. "Isn't that a good thing?" Donnie shakes his head near violently, his short low ponytail whipping side to side. "No! I had three tests today and I studied almost all night!" Raph chuckles. "Dork."
Leo sighs. "I guess we should just go home then..." Donnie groans but nods in agreement. Mikey seems ecstatic, deciding to be the exact opposite of Donnie. "YO! NO SCHOOL!" He shouts, flinging his arm around Donnie. "Yay." He says sarcastically. They all leave as a group, going back the way they came, each of them taking turns making sure Raph didn't collapse.
"Dude, I'm pretty sure you ripped that leg thing back open." Mikey points out, pointing to Raph's jeans where a red stain was forming. "Oh shit." Raph says, looking at his leg. Mikey looks at his smart brother. "Don, is it bad for Raph's leg to be bleeding again?" Donnie looks over at Mikey who's turn it was to help Raph. Then down to Raph's leg. "oh... Yeah, probably."
Donnie takes out his phone, checking the time quickly. "Okay, let's get back as quickly as possible, if it doesn't stop by the time we get back there might be a problem." The group starts walking a little faster and Mikey looks at Raph.
"Donnie wants to be an engineer." Mikey says, rolling his eyes. Raph looks a little confused. "What kind?" He asks, nearly tripping on a stray cat. "All of them." Mikey says with a smile.
They walk into the Hamato house, closing the door loudly behind them. "Father!?" Leo shouts down the hall. "We're back!" Leo continues. They all stop in front of the kitchen doorway where thy could see Yoshi sitting at the island and drinking some tea. "My sons, why are you back so soon?" Leo nods, taking lead and entering the kitchen. "There was a gas leak at the school. It's been called off for the whole day."
Yoshi nods and takes a sip from his cup. "Well, it is convenient. We seem to have run out of some food. And I must have forgotten to get a can of fruit for the fruit salad I was going to make tonight. Could you boys go to the store for me and pick some things up?" The boys all look at each other. The eldest two and the youngest all knew, no matter how old their father got, he did not forget things. But they made a promise, so as long as Yoshi was letting it go so would they.
Yoshi takes a pad of paper and a pen off the counter and writes down a quick list, handing it to Leo. He also digs out his wallet, placing separate large bills on the table. Mikey looks over his brother's shoulder. "Dad, how come you have this stuff on here? lettuce, a fish tank? Heat lamp? I mean, the lettuce isn't really that weird but seriously? Who wants to actually eat that stuff?"
Yoshi keeps a straight face and picks up his cup of tea. "I believe we have a house guest that would very much enjoy those things instead of a cardboard box." He takes a sip of tea and a small smile creeps onto his face, barely visible behind the cup. Raph and Mikey both look a little shocked.
Yoshi looks at Raph who was still being slightly supported by Mikey. "Raphael, are you well?" He asks. Raph shrugs the best he could with his arm around Mikey. "Yeah..."He says, crossing his legs slightly. Donnie sets his bag down on the floor. "No, he needs to get his leg re-wrapped." He says absentmindedly, not really looking at anyone. "It bled through his pants."
Donnie quickly grabs the last apple in the fridge and swipes up his bag, going quickly out of the kitchen and upstairs to his room, being very uncharacteristically broody. The boys look at the empty doorway, very confused. "Just let him cool off, he's probably still upset about school closing." Leo says to Raph who was at this point getting a little concerned about his leg starting to drip blood.
"Let us get your leg fixed up and then you boys can go to the store." Yoshi says, taking Raph from Mikey's grip. Raph shudders slightly at the new touch but allows Yoshi to lead him out of the kitchen and across the hall, into a small bathroom. Raph sits on the closed toilet and watches Yoshi bring out medical tape and gauze, making quick work of the awkward job. Raph only flinches a couple times as his leg gets rewrapped. "You're pretty good at this whole injury thing." Raph says, making conversation.
"Yes well, I don't believe his hospitals so I learned healing arts myself. I also get much practice with three clumsy boys in the house." He adds, chuckling. He finishes with Raphael's leg and leans back slightly. "There, no go change into clean pants and go to the store with-"
Yoshi hesitates for a moment, not sure of what to call his sons to this boy. "With Leonardo, Donatello and Michelangelo." Raph nods, standing up and steadying himself before leaving the small room, using the banister to climb the stairs without straining his leg. He stops ad Donnie's door and gives a small knock.
"Donnie?" He calls. There was no answer so he knocks again, this time a little louder. "Hey Don?" He calls, putting his left hand in his pocket. The door swings open and Donnie stands in front of him with the biggest, roundest glasses on that he had ever seen. "Pfft hahaha What are those!?" Raph laughs out, doubling over with laughter. "They're my reading glasses." Donnie says, swiping them off his face and stashing them in his pocket. "What do you want?" He asks snappily.
"Uh..." Raph drones out, not use to seeing Donnie with a temper. "Your dad wants us to go to the store. I'm just gonna change and we're gonna go." Donnie nods jerkily and closes the door in Raph's face, leaving him with multiple unanswered questions. "O-kay then." He says quietly, turning on his heal and walking the short distance to his room.
Raph smiles, his eyes catching the cardboard box holding his little friend. Before he even thinks of changing first he goes over to Spike. "Hey Spike, how's it goin' little buddy." He says, patting the small turtle's head with his finger. "We're gonna get you a real tank and some good food. You're gonna love it." He says. Raph doesn't know why he felt so comfortable talking to this little creature but he wasn't going to question it.
He gives him another little pat and grabs his sweatpants, taking off the jeans and slipping the more comfortable pants on. He tosses the bloodied pants on top of his packed bag, feeling entirely guilty all of a sudden. "Oh yeah..." He mumbles to himself. He shakes his head, ridding himself of the guilty thoughts, changing the internal subject. "I really need more than three pairs of pants." He says, brushing some hair out of his face.
Without another thought he walks out of his room, closing the door behind him. As he passes Donnie's door he pauses slightly, trying to listen through the door. He knows he's being just as nosy as they were but he couldn't help himself. He promises himself it was going to be a one time thing. What's their business is their business.
He hears a couple of soft hums and the squeaking of a chair moving. He decides if he's going to be nosy he might as well go hole hog. Raph pulls out one of his old tricks and starts trying to find the right angle to look through the crack between the door and the wall. He tries over and over again but can't see anything. He sighs quietly and backs up, going back down the rest of the hall and down the stairs.
"Hey Raph, have you seen Donnie?" Mikey says as Raph enters the large living-room. Raph liked this room the best out of the entire house. It had lots of open space with tall ceilings and at the back a large window that stretched along almost the whole back wall. "Yeah, he's in his room. I told him we were supposed to be leaving." Raph says, sitting down on one of the couches.
Mikey almost rolls his eyes. "He's so annoying sometimes. He really needs to get over this." He walks around the couches and out of the room, presumably to go get Donnie. Within five minutes Mikey comes down with a slightly less grouchy Donatello. "'Kay bro's let's go!" Mikey shouts, making sure Leo could hear him. Raph then wonders where Leo was.
He looks around and his eyes land on The blond teen outside on a wooden patio the big window which not only was a window but had a sliding door on the left side that Leo used to get back inside. "Alright, fine." Leo says. He comes over to the group and gives Donnie a little thumbs up. Donnie does not respond. "Can we just go?" Donnie says suddenly, walking out of the room. "The sooner we get there, the sooner we can leave."
Mikey leans towards Raph, his hand up by his face. "Somebody's on their period" He says in a sing song voice. Raph chuckles and they follow behind the angry teen.
After a long, loud debate about who would be driving Leo, as the oldest, responsibly yells at the others before announcing he would be driving, ending the never ending war of who shall drive. With that Raph sits in the back, Donnie in the passengers, and Mikey supposed to be sitting in the middle section was bouncing around from the front of the van to the back, almost never sitting still.
When they finally reached the superstore they park in the closest spot they could find before jogging in, not wanting to be out in the slight cold. Raph tries to jog but it ends up as a sort of limp hopping thing. Inside the store the four of them look over the list, realizing just how long it was. "Yeash, that old man can write fast." Raph says. There was nearly thirty items on the list, each of them seeming to be on opposite sides of the store.
"Oh man, this'll take forever." Donnie says. Mikey nods in agreement. "Dude, you know what we should do?" He says with excitement in his voice. The other three look confused. "We've never had enough people for this." He says, almost bursting at the seams. "What is it?" Leo groans. "We should have teams!" Mikey shouts. "It could be me and Don and you and Raph! We could each take half the list and get it done faster! It could be like a race!"
They stand shocked at Mikey. "That's..." Leo says. "Not an entirely terrible idea." Mikey bounces happily. "This is gonna be great!" He says, grabbing Donnie's arm roughly. Leo looks down at the list his father gave him and ripped it in half, handing half to Donnie. "Okay, we each get fifteen things and first to the car wins. And both members of your team have to be there to win." Raph nods and Donnie does the same, trying to keep Mikey away from the list.
"Awe, come on! How come Donnie gets to have the list?" Mikey whines. Leo pulls out a cart from the horizontal stack. "Because, he's less likely to drop it, or set it down, or rip it up." He brings the cart to a prominent blue line on the floor, setting it straight and motioning for the rest to follow. Mikey quickly grabs a cart and dashes over to the line, bouncing in anticipation. Donnie stands beside him, looking slightly cheered up.
"Ready. Set. GO!" Leo says, counting them off. As soon as the word left his lips they were off, all four sprinting into the store. Raph, who had never had the best of memories, forgets about his leg and starts sprinting along with Leo. He only gets a few steps in before he realizes the extreme pain in his leg. "Oh gosh, oh gosh, oh man." Raph says, holding his leg and sowing down to a slow hobble. Leo stops, noticing Raph wasn't beside him. "Raph! They're getting a head start!" He says, looking back.
Raph hobbles over to the cart. "I can't run. It's not going to happen." Leo only has to think for a moment before he grabs Raph's wrist. "Get in." He says, putting Raph's hand on the cart and grabbing the handle. Raph was about to question why he should or how Leo was okay with this kind of actual fun behavior but instead just shrugs and climbs into the cart, making sure to find a comfortable spot for his hurt leg.
They couldn't even see the other team anymore so as soon as Raph was in, Leo sprints off with the cart, passing the ripped list off to Raph. "What's the first thing?" Leo asks almost urgently. "Uh... three cans of sweet peas." Raph answers, reading off the list. Leo turns a tight corner and continues his sprint. "Then we're off."
Mikey laughs as he and Donnie sprint down the aisles. "They totally stopped dude! We're gonna win!" Donnie runs alongside the cart, looking at the list. "First thing's, a- uh, three boxes of athletic tape." Mikey makes a sharp left turn. "Yeah, we're running out of that." They reach the sports isle and Mikey swipes four boxes off the shelf, not noticing the extra one falling into the cart with the others. "What's next?" Donnie scans the list. "Next is three boxes of cereal." They start running off into the store again.
"What kind?" Mikey says, nearly running into an old woman's cart. "Two nasty brands and one sugar hyped bran for you." Donnie replies, steering the cart away from a shelf. "Maybe I should drive the cart." Mikey turns sharply to avoid a worker. "Nope!" They run all over the store, picking up thing after thing from their list. Every once and a while they would have to stop, almost running into other customers and apologizing. Well, Donnie would apologize. Mikey would keep running, shouting things like: "Hurry up Don!" Or "No time for apologies!"
Eventually they pass the electronics section of the large store, though Mikey tried his best to keep Donnie away from it he forgot for one moment, taking a turn into what would suck up precious time. "Is that what I think it is!?" Donnie nearly shouts, breaking off from his brother, his bad mood completely turned around now. "Is that the next generation cadmium processor with quantum encryption?!" Mikey groans and hops from foot to foot. "I don't know Donnie but I do know we're gonna lose if you keep gawking at these computers!"
Donnie doesn't listen, he just keeps looking at all the computers and pointing out all the names and capacities of them all. "Donatello! Please! I know you like computers but we're gonna lose so bad! We can come back and look at them later, promise!" Mike leaves the cart for a moment only to tug on Donnie's shirt. "Please!" Mikey keeps bouncing next to his brother who was smiling and reading the information about the computers. "Donnie, I can't win without you!" Mikey tries, pulling on individual hairs in Donnie's small pony tail.
After eight hairs Donnie stiffens up, standing up straight. "What are you doing." Mikey backs up into the cart, laughing nervously. "Uh..." Donnie turns around and gives Mikey a dark look. "You messed up my hair." He grits through his teeth. "Dude, You can't be that mad about me pulling a few hairs out of your little tail?" Mikey says, grabbing the cart and getting in a ready position.
"I had it perfect. Now it feels wrong." Donnie growls. He slides one foot back and lunges forward, grabbing at Mikey. Mikey was ready for this though, sprinting away again with Donnie on his trail. He swerves in and out of aisles, grabbing an item here and there from their list. "I'm going to kill you!" Donnie shouts, grabbing the hood of Mikey's orange hoodie. "Hey! But dude, look! We're at the registers! And I don't see Leo or Raph! We're gonna win!"
Donnie looks to his right and gasps. "...That's the most beautiful girl I've ever seen..." Mikey looks at Donnie and swears he could see hearts in his eyes. "Dude, You like a girl? I thought you were gay." Donnie Places his hand over Mikey's face. "No, shut up." He says in a love struck voice. "How do you just go up to a girl like that?" Mikey moves Donnie's hand from his face "Uh, well she's working a register so we could just go to her register." Mikey says, pushing the cart over to the third register in the row.
"Wait, no, Mikey!" Donnie says, reaching out a hand to his brother. After seeing that he wasn't coming back he begrudgingly follows him to the girl. "Hi, and did you two find everything alright today?" She asks. She had medium length red hair and a yellow t-shirt underneath a dark grey apron with the store's name on it. Donnie stares at her for a moment. "Uh... Y-Yeah! We found everything great!" Donnie chuckles. He reads her name tag and looks up at her bright blue eyes. "April... That's a really pretty name." He says, trying to keep his voice from sounding like he was completely love struck.
"Oh, um, thank you?" April says, putting the rest of the items in a bag. "That'll be fifty dollars and twenty eight cents." Mikey pulls out a wallet from his pocket and dishes out a full fifty dollar bill and a single bill along with it. "Thanks April!" Mikey says, nudging Donnie a little. "Oh, yeah, thank you." He says, picking three bags while Mikey takes two. Donnie lingers at the register but finally follows after Mikey pulls him along a few feet. Mikey returns the cart and runs towards the door with his two bags. "We're gonna win!"
Leo and Raph Roll through the store, each of them focused on their goal. Leo pushes the cart with ease, as if there wasn't an extra hundred and twenty pounds sitting in the cart. "List Raph, what's next?" Raph tilts in the cart and grunts. "The soup aisle, two cans of chicken noodle soup." He frowns for a second. "You guys planning on getting sick?" Leo shakes his head and continues on. "No, Father just likes chicken noodle soup."
Raph chuckles and feels how the cart moves when Leo turns. It was so smooth. It was weird. "You drive this oddly well." Raph says, shifting in the cart to a more comfortable position. "You look oddly comfortable." Leo replies. Raph leans back into the side of the cart and crosses his arms. "Ah, whatever." Raph grumbles.
They enter the soup aisle and Raph swipes two cans off swiftly without really looking at the labels. "Let's go." Leo continues at Raph's words, deciding to get this done he would be better off not talking.
It didn't last for long.
"We need a whole salmon!" Leo nearly shouts. They had gotten almost everything on the list accept for the salmon. The last two things they could get at the register. "How are we going to find this! The whole fish section is EMPTY!" Raph looks at Leo as he scours the fish section for anything at all. "We could just go back and say they didn't have any." Raph suggests. Leo spins around and looks at Raph with concern. "But we wouldnt've gotten everything on the list! And then Father would be disappointed in me and then-"
"Leo!" Raph shouts, snapping Leonardo out of his panic. "You don't need to be perfect man! Nothing bad will happen if we don't get a fucking fish!" Raph watches as Leo calms himself from his mini panic attack. "Okay, okay. Yeah. It's fine." Leo says to himself. "Let's go up to the registers, I'm sure we're going to win." Raph smirks at this and Leo pushes him and all of their items up to the front, along the way hearing a familiar voice yelling. "I'm going to kill you!"
They both hold their breaths as they reach the registers, hoping not to see Donnie or Mikey. "I think we're in the clear." Leo says. He quickly looks over Raph's shoulder at the list and grabs the last two things from near the register. They quickly hop in line and wait very impatiently. "Could this line move any slower!?" Raph complains.
After five minutes in line that felt like an hour they get to the front of the line, placing their items on the belt. "Hello, did you find everything alright?" A teenage girl says boredly. Se looks up from her nails and her eyes instantly lock onto Raph sitting in the cart. "Uh..." she says, pointing lazily to him. Leo places a hand on Raph's shoulder and looks into the girl's eyes. "He can't stand for long, his legs..." He trails off, dragging his finger across his neck and tilting his head a bit.
"Oh. What's he doing in there? We have those scooter things you know." The teen says, popping her gum. Leo doesn't answer right away and the girl's eyes go wide. She leans in towards Leo. "Is he paralyzed?" She whispers. Leo has to stifle a laugh and looks at Raph who just smirks and gives him a tiny nod, making his limbs go limp. "Yeah, we just needed to grab a few things quick so we couldn't bring his chair. It's nearly trashed by now though, with all the times he's gotten it stolen and broken."
The girl looks horrified and both boys have to try their hardest not to burst out into laughter. She scans the last item and mumbles the amount they owed. Leo dishes out the money and smiles. "The cart is just faster." Leo grabs the bags and puts them in the cart around Raph before sprinting out the doors with the cart into the cold air. Once they were far enough away from the store they both burst out laughing. They roll up to the van and slide the side door open. "We won!" Leo says, unloading the bags into the van.
"I can't believe you just did that!" Raph says, unable to control his laughter. "Oh, yeah... Heh, I just kind of did it." Leo says awkwardly, rubbing his neck. Raph climbs out of the cart and sits on the floor of the car, his legs hanging out of the van. "You just need to chill sometimes. You see what happens when you do? You're actually tolerable."
Leo rolls his eyes and shoves the cart away a bit. "Wow big word for you. Where'd you get that one?" Raph smirks. "Real funny." Leo sits down next to Raph and leans back on his hands. "We work pretty well as a team." Raph leans forward, resting his elbows on his knees. "Yeah, pretty damn well." They sit in silence until they see two sprinting forms come out of the building.
They run up to the van and drop their bags to the ground. "NO...!" The shorter of the two groans. "WE WERE GOING TO WIN!" The taller picks the bags back up and places them in the van. "Mikey give it a rest, we knew we were going to lose." Donnie says, not feeling upset in the slightest. Raph sits up straight. "I guess we're the A- team. Huh?" Leo catches on to Raph's banter. "That must make you two the B-team." Leo smiles. He was excited that they were all getting along for once.
"Oh please." Donnie says, a goofy smile on his face. Mikey, annoyed at how calm Donnie was being about losing pushes Donnie a little. "Oh, guess what~" He say in a sing song voice. "Donnie found his girlfriend~"
"Oh really?" Leo asks, nudging Donnie's side. "I was starting to think you were gay." Donnie turns a bright red and opens the passenger's side door. "What is it with you guys and thinking I'm gay." Leo stands up and pokes Donnie's red cheek. "So, what's her name?" Raph chuckles while Mikey gets into the van past Raph. "April." Donnie mumbles. "She's so pretty. She's got this beautiful orange hair, and her eyes, oh her eyes are this gorgeous shade of blue." Donnie says, marveling over the girl.
"Oh I think I know her." Leo says casually. "WHAT!?" Donnie shouts, snapping out of his haze. "Yeah," Leo says again. "She's in my grade. She's really smart too. You two would probably get along really well." Donnie looks at Leo with the larges puppy dog eyes. "I could introduce you two if you-" Leo doesn't even get to finish his sentence before Donnie lunges at him with a hug. "Oh my gosh Leo, would you!?"
Mikey whispers to Raph as they were excluded in the conversation. "This is the happiest I've seen him since he got some computer for Christmas." Raph nods, watching Donnie happily move his body in ways nobody else would consider normal. But he was happy. And so were they.
If you're a freak like me,
Wave your flag!
If you're a freak like me,
Get off your ass!
It's our time now,
To let it all hang out
Freak like me: Halestorm
HOLY FRICKING CRAP. LONGEST CHAPTER EVER! I hope the long wait was worth it for this chapter. This long. Long. LONG. Chapter. Let me know what you thought of this. I'd love to hear what you guys think is going to happen with this story.
Thanks for reading and I'll write you next time!