(2701 words)
Raph lies on his bed, staring over at his small pet turtle he had come to love. He felt like literal death and his body craved sleep but for some unknown reason he just couldn't sleep. He had been tossing and turning for three hours now and it was almost two thirty in the morning. He pushes himself off the bed and walks around the room for a moment.
A walk. A walk would make him tired. With that thought stuck in his mind Raphael pushes his door open quietly and sneaks down the hall towards the stairs. He wouldn't be out for long, not more than an hour and everyone would still be asleep at that point. He takes the first step down and immediately regrets it.
He doesn't know what was on that stair but all Raph wants to do is to curse it to hell. He trips and falls all the way down the stairs, landing on the floor with a thud. "Ow..." Raph groans, barely getting himself to sit up. After a moment of assessing his own wounds he figures his shoulder had been ripped open once again. He places his hand on it to try and stop the bleeding but it bled too fast. The liquid drips through his fingers and onto his sweat pants.
Amongst the quiet he hears the small squeak of a door opening upstairs. He looks up and sees Donnie is peaking out of his doorway, the sectioned blanket still wrapped around his shoulders. "Raph?" He whispers. "Are you okay?" Raph rolls his eyes. "Do I look okay?" He grunts out. Donnie shakes his head, not realizing it wasn't really a question. He walks down the stairs and finally gets a better look at Raph.
"Oh man, that does not look good. Not at all." Donnie says, bending down. He drops the blanket and it hits the floor with a small thud. "Geeze, how heavy is that blanket?" Raph asks with a small laugh. "About fifteen pounds." Donnie says, picking Raph up off the floor and leading him to the bathroom. "I'll help patch you up." he says.
"I can do it myself." Raph says. Donnie doesn't even look at him. "I bet you could. It would just be extremely painful and sloppy but yeah go ahead." Raph sits down on the toilet lid. "Alright, I get it." He says, watching as Donnie pulls out a first aid kit stored in an overhead cabinet. "How did you even get this thing?" Donnie asks with a yawn.
Raph thinks on this for a moment and in his tired mind he rationalizes telling the older boy. "Only if you tell me more about this what was it, altism thing." Donnie shrugs. "Autism." He corrects. "But fine. You go first thought." He says, starting to soak up Raph's blood with toilet paper.
"Okay, uh... Well at the foster family- foster dad really, he was the only one, but with him he was doing some stuff, like drugs and drinking and stuff and he'd freak out on me. So I left. He tracked me down real fast and he knocked me over onto the side walk. He pulled out a knife of all things and carved this into my shoulder." Raph points to the lightning bolt.
"With some bat shit dumb luck a cops patrol car was goin' past just then and beat the guy offa me. Then I went back to the home until some other foster family could take me in which just happened to be you guys." Raph finishes out. "So uh, your turn."
Donnie moves to start wrapping Raph's shoulder back up. "So, autism. It's a neurological disorder that affects the way I think. So uh, like what happened earlier, that's what we call a meltdown. Those happen when I'm just really overwhelmed with sensory stuff or like emotional things." Donnie rips the tape off at the end and shoves the first aid material in the cabinet.
"Um, there's a lot to it but I'll just pick out the major ones. So there's um stimming. It's short for self stimulating behavior." Donnie fidgets with his fingers. "A-A few common ones are um, flapping and rocking but there's all different kinds of ways to stim and lots of different reasons to do it." Donnie yawns again and scratches at his arm. "Some stims are bad and harmful though."
Donnie looks away for a second, looking almost regretful. "Um, and then another big thing is special interests. They're just something we get super focused on and start really really liking. It could be literally anything but mine is engineering and computers. I know so much about those things you could literally ask me anything and I could answer."
Donnie scratches the back of his head."But uh, I wouldn't suggest actually asking me unless you're prepared for an hour of knowledge you probably don't care about." Raph snorts. "Okay, I'll take your word for it." Donnie smiles and reaches out a hand to Raph. "So uh, what keeps you up so late?" He asks finally. Raph shrugs. "Just couldn't sleep" He mumbles.
Donnie nods and the two of them walk out of the bathroom. "What about you?" Raph asks. Donnie walks into the kitchen and waves a hand toward Raph, motioning for him to follow. "Insomnia. Really sucks. Happens all the time though so I'm used to it." Donnie gets out two mugs and fills them with water.
Raph doesn't question what the older boy was doing, just watches. "Hey Raph?" Donnie asks suddenly. "Yeah?" Raph yawns out. "Would you tell me about your foster families?" He asks hesitantly. Raph who had at this point laid his head on the table wraps his arms around his head. "Maybe..." He mumbles.
He knew that Donnie had also been in the system and while he was curious, he wasn't going to just ask. That is, not until Donnie did. "If you tell me about yours." Raph finally says. With out picking up his head he puts up both pointer fingers, one right after the other. "One for one."
Donnie smirks. "I guess that's fair... But you're going first." Raph shakes his head on the table. "Nu-uh, I went first in the bathroom." Donnie takes out two packets of powder and rips them open, pouring them into the mugs. "Fine." Donnie huffs. "I don't remember some of them because I was so young but the earliest one I can remember was when I was four or something."
Donnie mixes the powder into the water and puts both mugs in the microwave. "They were a decent family, a little boy who was probably a couple years older than me. A teen girl who very stereotypically was on the phone non stop. Now that I think about it, I think the mom might have been a drug addict. Maybe alcohol, I don't know."
The microwave beeps and Donnie takes out the mugs, setting one in front of Raph and sitting down across from him with his own. "It's hot chocolate." He says before taking a sip. "Anyways, It was okay until I saw the dad and daughter..." Donnie shivers. "In bed together. Then they made up some shit about me being unsuitable for their household and I was sent away."
Donnie takes a large gulp of the burning liquid and sets the mug down, wiping his mouth. "Your turn." Raph picks his head up "That's disgusting." He says clearly before taking a sip of his hot chocolate. "Ow! How did you just drink that stuff!?" Donnie shrugs and takes another drink. "Go." Raph sighs and looks to the right, thinking.
He needed to find a family in his mind that would be equivalent or better than Donnie's. He sure as hell wasn't going to tell him about any old family, he already told him a bit about the last one he had. "Um, well there was this one family that was okay. I think it was like a year or two ago. There were five other teens living there? It was weird."
Raph fiddles with the mug's handle. "Uh, there were a few little kids too, it felt like that cheaper by the dozen house or something. But I- Uh... I liked the parents, the little kids were sweet..." Raph looks as if he was remembering a fond memory for a moment before his normal natural unapproachable face appears.
"At first they all looked at me with pity but then it faded until it was only the one girl. A-Anyways We got real close and even though she started being my friend because she pitied me it turned into a real friendship. That is until she betrayed me." Raph scowls and takes a burning gulp of the hot chocolate.
"Betrayed you?" Donnie asks, confused. "Yeah." Raph says simply. Its silent and Raph can tell Donnie wanted to ask about what happened. "I can't tell you what happened." He says finally. "Hey, I didn't ask." Donnie says, gulping down the rest of his drink. Raph rolls his eyes. "So, you got any others?" Raph asks, knowing Donnie was adopted into the family he came to when he was five.
Donnie nods. "Two. One right after the other." He looks at Raph with a smirk. "But you have to tell me about more of yours if you want to hear them." Raph looks at the clock and shrugs. "Why the hell not?" He sips his cup and gestures to Donnie.
"Okay, so this one was when I was just about five, maybe four months or so until my birthday. I wasn't there long though. There was an older boy, probably seventeen or something. Then there was the dad, he... wasn't the best. And then there was this little foster boy who was like a year younger than me." Donnie stands up and sets his mug in the sink, running the water for a second to wash it out.
"The older brother wanted to care for us as the younger two. He helped us with small bits of school and made us food and stuff. But then he got in a car accident while he was driving the other boy back from a speech therapy thing. He was knocked out cold and was in a coma for a week or something. The younger boy, he didn't talk already but after that he started having crying episodes."
Raph looks at Donnie, almost suspicious. He frowns deeply. "Anyways, I got taken out of there mainly because the dad couldn't handle all of that. I heard the other boy was taken out of there pretty quickly after that too. I really liked him though. Even though he was kinda messed up, he was fun to play with and talk with. Well, talk to. As I already said, he didn't talk."
Raph has his hand over the top of his mug as he leans forward. "What was his name?" He asks. "I don't know. I only ever called him 'L'. Why?" Donnie says. "Because that was the next house I was going to tell you about." Raph says, shocked. "You're joking." Donnie says lowly. "No, I swear on my life, I was in that house. I barely remember it but the parts I do match up perfectly."
Raph looks at Donnie who's eyes are wide open now. "You were L!?" Raph nods vigorously. "Yeah, apparently!" Donnie leans back in his chair with his hands on his head. "What the f- Holy shit" Donnie stops himself from cursing the first time and Raph laughs.
"This is so fucking weird." Raph says. "Wait, so that means you were in that car crash." Donnie says. "Yeah, that sucked. Zero out-a ten, would not do again." Donnie snorts at Raph's laid back comment. "So what happened? I've been dying to know since forever!" Raph thinks hard, way back. "It's kinda blurry, but he was talking to me about some kids show and there was a cat in the street."
Raph closes his eyes like he was trying to envision it. "I-I yelled 'cat' and he swerved off the road. We would've been okay but he was so surprised that I talked that he looked back at me and we hit... Something? I really don't remember much after that... Which is stupid because that's kinda a traumatic situation."
Donnie gives a breathy laugh. "Wow, so you could speak?" Raph shrugs for what seems like the millionth time that night. "Sort of? I could speak to people I was super comfortable with but since there wasn't any consistent people to get comfortable with I really couldn't talk to anyone. I could speak in like super dire situations so in my tiny mind hitting a cat in the road would be the worst thing to ever happen."
"Yikes. Sounds like a hassle." Donnie says. "Yeah, it was." Raph replies, rolling his eyes and finishing his drink. In that moment Raph felt more connected to Donnie than he had ever felt with anyone in his life.
Unfortunately the moment was interrupted by a loud thump at the bottom of the stairs. Both boys instantly look out the doorway behind Raph to see Mikey stretched between the three bottom steps of the stair case. "Oh, uh, hey guys. What's up?" he says, flipping his messy hair out of his face. "What the hell are you doing up? It's like four AM!"
Mikey shrugs. "I'm hungry." He says, pulling his leg down the stairs so he could stand in an upright position. He walks past Raph and Donnie, opening the fridge and letting a painful amount of light into the dark room. Donnie rolls his eyes. "I swear, Leo's the only one who actually sleeps in this house." He grumbles.
"You're lucky I heard they couldn't fix the gas leak today. No school tomorrow." Donnie says, taking Raph's empty mug and setting it in the sink along with his own. "You two are lucky too." Mikey says, pulling out a package of ham. "I see you've had your midnight hot chocolate. Is the little baby Donnie ready for bed now?"
Donnie purses his lips and crosses his arms. "I think you'd better watch your mouth or I might not help you with your history homework anymore." Mikey nearly drops the small hoard of food he had gathered. "WHAT." He says loudly. "Shh! Mikey keep it down, you're gonna wake-" Suddenly they hear footsteps from the direction of the living room.
"Shit!" Donnie hisses. "Run!" Mikey yells quietly, shoving half his hoard into the fridge again and scrambling silently up the stairs. Donnie is the first of the two remaining to run after the redhead. Quickly after when Raph hears the switch of a light turning on he sprints after them, slightly louder, but still mostly silent.
By the time Yoshi walks into the empty kitchen all he sees is an open, messy fridge and two hot chocolate residued mugs in the sink. Raph lays panting in his bed from the short, panicked sprint. He saw Mikey and Donnie get into their rooms respectively so all he needed to do now was fall asleep. To Raph's surprise he felt much more relaxed and falling asleep seemed like it'd be no problem at all.
Attention: All insomniacs, please raise your right hand.
And kindly, repeat after me.
"I guess I'll sleep when I am dead!"
I'll Sleep When I Am Dead
Set It Off.
I was going to have Mikey eating Baloney but I couldn't figure out how to spell it and I also didn't want to do it multiple times XD (Oh, and I know it was a little cheesy having Raph and Donnie in the same home at one point but it popped into my head and wouldn't go away) Anyways, I somehow made this whole chapter in just two days! I did almost two thousand in one day and now I'm exhausted. Finishing that last one inspired me to do one more though! So I hope you enjoyed this, tell me your thoughts on this chapter and I'll write you next time!