(4474 Words)
"Raph, I'm sorry for how I acted earlier. It was wrong and I just said those things out of anger." Leo stands in the kitchen, standing in front of Raph who was leaning on the counter. "Eh, whatever." Raph says, folding his arms. "I normally deserve it." Raph snorts at Leo's expression of shock. "Um... Uh, anyways, Father scheduled training for later today and he wanted me to ask if you wanted to come."
Raph lolls his head to the side. "Uh, yeah, sure." He says lazily. "Better than stayin' here by myself all day." He pushes himself off from the counter. "But uh... I got somewhere I need to go, just for a little while ya'know." Leo raises his eyebrows. "Uh, I don't think Father is going to want any of us going anywhere alone after today."
Raph moves towards the doorway. "You ain't coming." Raph says. "Okay, okay. But someone has to." There's a stretch of silence before Leo speaks up again. "So when will you and Donnie be back?" Raph gives him a sideways glance. "How do you know I wasn't going to take Mikey?" Leo laughs. "Because no one wants to take Mikey."
They share a laugh before Raph walks out of the kitchen, rubbing his arms which were covered in goosebumps. "Damn asshole... Gotta go and pull the friggen' trigger..." He mutters as he goes up the stairs. He stops at the second door and knocks. "Hey Don?" He calls "Can I come in?" Donnie calls from inside and Raph pushes the door open.
Donnie was sitting on his desk chair, his feet pulled up with him and spinning around and around. He stops spinning after Raph had been standing in the doorway for an awkward amount of time. "Hey." He says, putting one foot down on the floor. "What's up?" Raph holds back a laugh and walks into the room a bit farther.
"Uh, I was wondering if you'd like to go out for a bit. Leo said your dad wouldn't want anyone going out alone today." Raph scratches the back of his head. "Where?" Donnie asks blandly. "Just some place I used to hang out with some friends at." Raph says, trying to not exactly give away where.
"But where is it?" Donnie asks again. Raph rolls his eyes. "Look, do you want to come or not. I'd gladly go alone." Donnie stands. "Okay okay, I'm coming." He grabs a satchel from his floor and follows Raph out of the room the younger of the two wearing a small smirk.
Raph trudges through the streets after just barely getting permission to leave the house. Yes, he may have just been traumatized a couple hours ago but he'd been through trauma before. He could handle himself.
Donnie takes short quick steps, keeping the same pace as the shortest of the boys. "So uh... Are we almost there?" Donnie asks, picking at the skin on his hands. Raph nods. "yeah, we just turn here and there's a place to the right." Donnie looks around. "Raph, this doesn't seem like a very... Nice neighborhood if you know what I mean." Raph shrugs. "I'm not a very nice guy."
They turn and keep going down the street until Raph stops outside of a locked building and knocks twice with the back of his hand. He waits and he hears a the sound of metal on metal and two eyes appear, one bright green like his own and one a deep deep brown. A metal grate slides over the eyes and the door creeks open.
There was a short red-headed boy standing just inside, his dusty brown jacket ripped in multiple places. He holds the door open and Raph and Donnie walk inside, Donnie more uneasy than the other. "Thanks Frankie." Raph says, rustling his shaggy hair. "Kid kinda reminds me of Mikey." Raph mutters as they walk further into the empty building.
They go up to a door with a green lock and Raph hits a couple different spots before lifting it open, almost having to drag Donnie inside. As soon as they enter the whole world seems to get louder. There's kids and teens everywhere in this warehouse, almost a full society established. Raph walks up to the first person he sees, a tall brown haired boy wearing a flannel.
"Hey Q." Raph calls, putting a hand on his shoulder. "Where can I find Angel?" The boy shrugs. "She's been chillin' with the music junkies in the loft." Raph gives a nod of thanks and yanks Donnie away from where he was staring at a hunk of tech. "Come on nerd, I'm sure there's more junk for you to gawk at up in the loft."
They swerve their way through the people, Donnie picking more rapidly at his hands. "So what is this place?" Donnie asks, following Raph through the small crowds. "It's were all the kids like me come to chill for a bit or live for a while. Could be foster kids who ran or they could be street rats who wander but it doesn't matter, they can all come here. It's like a safe haven."
Donnie's hands flit up to his ears when a loud group of people pass them by. "Seems kinda loud to be a safe haven." Raph shrugs and slaps his own leg as they walk. "Doesn't seem loud to me. Feels just right." Donnie looks around. "How is there not any fights going on here? I mean, with all these different types of people and all?"
Raph chuckles. "Funny huh? There's kinda some unwritten laws about this place here. You don't fight and if you do you're banned for a month. That's real tough on some kids here. If you fight three times you're out. If you steel more than once you're out and if you ever, ever call any kind of authorities you'd better watch out because there's some kids here who will literally kill you."
Donnie raises his eyebrows and looks at Raph. "Yeah, some of those I think were written down but someone lost them a long time ago." A small siren goes off nearby and Donnie presses his hands up to his ears and closes his eyes tightly. He stops moving and Raph has to glance back at him before he notices he'd stopped.
"Don, what's the hold up?" Donnie cracks open his eyes and they jump from place to place before settling on Raph again. "It's just- Really... Overwhelming right now." He looks around a bit more before noticing a girl with large headphones over her half shaven haircut. She locks eyes with Donnie before her gaze wanders over to his hands on his ears.
She smiles and walks over to them. "Hey. I'm gonna take your friend with me. Knock on the white door when you want him back." She says, taking Donnie by the arm and dragging him away with her. "Ah, whatever." Raph says, waving a hand at them before continuing on his mission. "Axle's chill."
He goes to the far left corner and starts climbing a wooden poorly built ladder. He skips the second rung to the top and climbs through a hole at the top. He smiles a little, looking around. There were people all around, headphones in or instruments lying around. Music came from every corner of the loft. Raph starts walking through the beanbag infested floor, looking for the splodge of purple he'd recognize.
Finally at the back he saw her. Angel was sitting with a slightly older boy and another girl, playing around with a sound board. They were laughing and nearly falling over. "Hey Angel, what's so funny?" She looks up, wiping tears of laughter from her eyes. "Raph! Hahaha, hey!" Raph sits down and the other girl jumps on Raph's back while the boy flops over his legs.
"Raph~" Both of them whine, poking him everywhere. "You said we'd get a spot by now" Raph pushes them off of him playfully. "Well it was quicker when I was here. Long term spots are hard to get." They bound away, waving to Angel before tackling each-other to the beanbags. "So, I came to make sure you were okay and to maybe show you some of the ropes around here."
Angel smirks and moves closer. "Well I think I'm learning the ropes pretty well myself." Raph raises his eyebrows. "Really now shrimp? You've been here a few hours and you think you know more than me? That's bull-shit." Angel crosses her arms. "I ain't no shrimp. I'm twelve so I'm practically a teenager."
"Kid, you're practically a toddler by that logic." Raph laughs. Raph starts telling Angel about the rules they had until she starts to look uncomfortable. "What's up?" Angel looks away. "Uh... Nothing. It's just that... I diiiiiidn't really know the rules when I got here." Se says, stretching out her words. Raph narrows his eyes.
"What did you do." He says lowly. Angel shifts, adjusting her belt. "I maaay or may not have stolen a few things..." She says, wincing. Raph sighs. "What." Angel turns out nearly invisible pockets. A ring-pop, a necklace, a squishy ball, and a pocket knife fall out. "Okay, okay, that's an easy-ish fix... That knife might not be. Those things are like gold around here." Raph mumbles the last part.
"All you need to do is tell me who you took these from and I'll figure out how to get them back. We can't have people knowing you were steeling on your first day." Raph looks at each of the items. Angel points to the ring pop first. "This one some kid was just handing out so I don't think that one actually counts as steeling." She moves to the necklace and smiles sheepishly.
"This one was on a table next to this really pretty girl and I thought... Ah, it was stupid. The girl was blond and she didn't notice I took it because she had headphones in and so loud I could hear it clearly." Raph hums. "Long hair? small chest?" Angel nods. "She was eating a pickle slice." Raph lets out a small sigh of relief. "I can sneak that back no problem."
Angel points to the ball and pokes it. "This one I took from a bin by a white door. There were a ton of things like it so I didn't think it'd make a difference." Raph rolls his eyes. "It's gonna make a difference. The guys from the white door notice everything." Angel starts to look around. "And the knife?" Raph asks quietly.
"Mmmnnn..." She groans. "There was a bigger boy. I took it out of his pocket and ran." Angel tugs at her hat. "He had a cigarette in his mouth and was looking for a lighter. He also had a weird braided or dread-locked Mohawk?" Raph face-palms so hard it leaves a red mark. "Ooooh fuck."
Donnie cringes at the girl's touch but the feeling was lessened by the fact she had grabbed him where his shirt reached. "Who are you? Why are you taking me away from Raph?" Donnie asks, getting anxious. "I'm Axle and because I know where you'll like it." She says, not looking at him at all. They come up to a white door and she pushes it open quietly.
immediately when he enters Donnie feels a flush of cool air hit him, making the warmth and stuffiness of the other packed room feel like it was of the past. He looks around and takes it all in. There were all types of seating options in this room, hanging chairs, hammocks, bungee chord chairs, bean bags, and some plain old mats like ones that he'd used in training.
There weren't as much people around in this room and the ones that were were silent or nearly silent. He noticed most of them were playing with some sort of toy weather that be a squishy ball or a tangle. "What is this place?" Donnie asks, Axle still standing next to him. "Heh, you say that like this is literal heaven." She says, gesturing around. "This is what we call the sensory relief station. Only people like us are allowed here." She says, raising her eyebrows.
"If you know what I mean." She finishes. Donnie smiles. "Y-Yeah, I think I do." He stands near the door, tapping his legs and bouncing a bit. "Go ahead. Everything's for everyone in here." Axle says. Donnie smiles and looks to three office chairs near the back. He rushes to them and takes the one that was the middle height, spinning around as fast as he could.
It wasn't exactly like the one at home but it was pretty good. After a while he notices that almost no one was talking to each-other. There were a couple people here and there but the more he looked the more he noticed only one of those people were talking, the other was just sitting and listening.
Donnie pulls his feet up on the chair and taps them a couple times with a big dorky smile on his face. "It's like heaven."
Raph holds the last object he needed to return in his hand, glancing from side to side. "Kid, you'd better never do anything like this here again because I can't help you next time." Raph growls to Angel. They walk around, acting like they were going to trade things, looking at some tables of things that some kids had laid out.
"I said I'm sorry. I just see stuff and I gotta take it." Angel says, moving quickly to not get hit by a large girl speed walking. "Well don't." Raph groans. As they walks Angel tries to explain herself. "It's like an itch that just gets worse and worse until I have to scratch it. Most of the time I don't even want the stuff!" Raph puts his hand over her mouth and points to a boy with camouflage cargo shorts and a black t-shirt. "That the guy?"
Angel nods and Raph creeps forward, passing the knife to Angel "Slip it back while I distract him." He whispers. She nods again and they move into position. "Hey man, what's up?" Raph says suddenly, clapping the boy on the back. "Hey, Raph! How've you been?" Raph shrugs. "I'm good." The boy snorts. "What brings you back ta' this place?"
"I brought in that new girl. I was checking up on her." Raph answers, glancing down at Angel who was creeping towards the boy's pocket. "Cool man. What's your livin' situation lookin' like about now?" Raph rolls his eyes. "I'm with this family that's way too into my business. And there's this one asshole who acts like he's the parent. Gosh do I just wanna punch him in his smug face."
The boy lets out a hardy laugh and drapes his arm over Raph's shoulder. "Man, you just need to get out for a while. Runnin' away from a family like that is the best way to go. I mean, at least for a while. Get them to loosen up their rules or better yet, have you make some rules." Raph shrugs and looks away. "Ya' know, I almost did that. Some guy talked me outta it."
The boy leans away from Raph. "You gotta be kiddin' me." He says, a thick Italian accent showing through. "If you gotta leave, you gotta leave. Don't let some asswhipe who don't know nothing tell you what to do." Raph nods. "Yeah, Vizioso, I guess you're right." They boy backs up and makes muscle arms. "The Don's always right!"
Raph glances down once again, seeing Angel had disappeared. "Well, I'll be seeing ya Viz." He says, waving a hand behind him. When he got far enough away he notices someone following him. He turns around quickly to see Angel looking up at him silently. "Oh my gosh kid! Speak up!" She walks beside him and watches her feet. "So I put it back..." She says.
"Yeah, I'd hope so." Raph groans. "Kid, you can steal all you want out there but in here you just can't." Raph reiterates. Angel rolls her eyes. "Okay, okay. I get it." Raph starts leading her back to the loft. "Now, what'cha gotta do is find a group of girls and see if you can join their sleeping spot because getting your own is gonna be hell okay?" Angel nods.
She opens her mouth but Raph starts talking before she can get any words out. "And you can't be in a boy's group because the likely hood of one of them rapin' you is gonna skyrocket." Raph says without hesitation. Angel shuts her mouth and starts climbing to the loft. "Thanks for everything Raph." She says before disappearing through the hole at the top.
"Yeah..." He says, staring up at the hole for a minute before walking away, brushing his long black hair out of his eyes. He sighs, tired of how the day had been going so far. He arrives at the white door and knocks quietly, learning a lesson from the last time he'd been too loud. The door creeks open and Axle comes out. "Yeah?" She asks, her face blank. "Um, I'm looking for the guy I came in here with, Donnie?"
She nods and closes the door. Raph waits a couple minutes and Donnie finally emerges, Axle giving them a little wave before retreating into the room. "So what was in that room?" Raph asks as they start walking towards the exit. Donnie seemed much more mellowed out than he had when they went there and he had a small circle pinned to his shirt that looked like it was made of colorful, plastic, macaroni noodles.
"You've never been in there?" Donnie asks, fingering the pin. Raph shakes his head. "Na, only certain people are allowed in there and I could never figure out what they all had in common." Donnie smiles. "I don't know if I should tell you why each person is allowed but I can tell you about the room."
Raph looks at Donnie and they go out the first door and into the nearly empty warehouse. "It was colder than that crowded room and there wasn't a lot of people talking. There was a lot of nice seating and there was some... toys around." Raph furrows his brow. "Was that a masturbation room?" Raph asks.
"Oh my gosh, ew! No!" Donnie says, disgusted. "Is that a thing? You know what, I don't want to know." Donnie says quickly. Raph snickers and they go out the last door to the outside streets. "It's getting late... Late-er anyways." Donnie says, looking up at the sun that had just barely started to set. "We have training pretty soon too..." Donnie mumbles. "We should get going." Raph says, resisting the urge to put an arm around Donnie like he would a friend.
"Don how are you of all people almost late for training!?" Leo asks as he, Donnie, and Raph slam the van doors closed. "Mikey and Father got here twenty minutes ago! He's probably almost started without us." Donnie doesn't say anything, knowing his older brother was right. Raph crosses his arms and they go inside the dojo. "Maybe you could just chill out a sec." Raph mumbles.
Leo glances over at him. "Uh, no actually. We don't screw off at practice." Raph smirks. "Yeah, you fuck yourself in your room." Leo tenses and was about to shoot back a retort but they enter the building and he closes his mouth. Leo sets down his training bag on a chair and jogs to the padded floor, bowing before stepping on. "I'm sorry Sensai. He says after bowing. I had to pick Raph and Donnie up because they got lost."
Raph rolls his eyes. "Well we could-a made it if Dorkanoid here hadn't wanted to stop by the tech store." Donnie shrinks back sheepishly. "I had to ask if they had the new parts come in yet." He says in a whiny defense. Yoshi stands, unfazed by his son's bickering. "Drop your bags. Your warm up today will be a sparring match between all four of you." They all look at Raphael who looks between the four hamatos.
"Uh... Okay?" Raph says. "If you are to train with us Raphael you must show us what you are capable of." Yoshi says calmly. "Whatever." Raph replies with a shrug, not feeling threatened in the slightest by the four literal trained ninjas in the room. The boys all stand at the four corners of the mats, waiting for Yoshi to say the word. "Last man standing, anything goes." He says.
"Hajime." The boys all rush to the center, Mikey going after Leo and Donnie charging towards Raph. Raph would've been content to let the three brothers battle it out until only one stood for him but apparently that wasn't going to happen. Donnie takes a swing at his chest but Raph dodges back, smoothly moving around the teen and landing a hit straight to Donnie's back.
He's jolted forward and swings around, ducking under another of Raph's attacks. As they continue their silent fight Mikey wouldn't shut his mouth. "Yo Leo, you tired bro?" He says snarkily. "You're getting sloppy man, wanna take a break?" He says, barely holding in laughs at the end. "You had half an hour to warm up." Leo says. "I just jumped in and I'm still kicking your butt." Leo smirks and knocks Mikey to the ground, kicking him away so that he rolls to the edge of the mats.
Raph sees Leo finish Mikey and realizes he'd be coming after them now. He needed to get rid of Donnie and fast if he wanted to win this thing. He realizes he had real fear going through him. He didn't want to disappoint Yoshi. He lands a perfectly formed kick to Donnie's chest, sending him flying backwards. He rolls backwards off the mats and looks up once he stopped. "Was not expecting that..." He says in painful awe.
Raph and Leo face each-other, both stopped for a brief moment of breathing. "Ready?" Leo asks, partially as a jab to Raph and partially as an actual question. Raph scoffs and charges Leo, hoping to take him by surprise. Leo gets a clear hit to his stomach and Donnie and Mikey as the audience groan in sympathetic pain.
Leo takes the small moment of distraction and moves around, slamming his foot into Raph's back twice, lurching him forward. It looked as if Leo was just beating down on him, as Raph gets hit multiple more times. He curls in on himself slightly as Leo keeps hitting him. "Give up yet?" He asks, noticing how much of a beating he was taking. Raph glances up at Yoshi who looked on with a stoic expression.
With that he gets a burst of energy and lets out a shout, elbowing Leo in the face and returning all that he had dished out onto him. He punches and kicks, barely giving Leo enough time to block them. once Leo's shock had worn off he starts attacking back, spinning Raph around eventually and grabbing both of his wrists together. Raph lets out a small shriek, his mind transferring back to what had happened just earlier that day, almost feeling the gun to his back again.
He separates his hands and with a shout reaches behind himself and flips Leo to the ground, using all his strength. He breaths heavily, standing over Leo who looked up at Raph with wide eyes and holding his arm Raph had used to flip him. He looks around at the other's expressions, Donnie and Mikey looking as if they were halfway to running over to the pair in panic while Yoshi stood with slightly wider eyes.
"Yame." Yoshi commands and Raph gets the idea, stepping away from Leo. Donnie and Mikey come to stand next to the other two in front of Yoshi, Donnie helping Leo up from the floor. Raph doesn't know what to think. Did he impress Mr. Hamato? Did he make him mad? Was he too rough? He didn't mean to do that last part, was he mad about that.
Yoshi walks up to Raph and stares at him for a moment. "Are you alright Raphael?" He asks, shocking Raph. Was he alright? Why was that what he asked? He won. Of course he was alright. A little bruised but alright altogether. "I can take it."Raph replies, tapping the tips of his toes on the mats anxiously. "You sure can!" Mikey says with a laugh. "You took a real beating!"
Yoshi doesn't even have to spare him a glance, Donnie and Leo glare at the boy. He walks back in front of the boys. "Congratulations Raphael." He says, giving him a curt nod. Raph feels his chest swell with pride. If that was all he had to do to make someone even slightly proud of him, he sure as hell going to do it. He could take that. He didn't have to tell anyone that he had to nearly have a panic attack to do it.
"cause when it ..
Feels like a kick in the teeth, I can take it.
Throw your stones and you won't see me break it.
Say what you want, take your shots.
You're setting me free with one more kick in the teeth
(Na na na na na)
Kick in the Teeth (na na na na na na)"
"Kick In The Teeth"
Papa Roach.
I hope you all liked the new chapter! I actually really liked writing it and I can't wait to hear what you guys have to say about it.
Constructive criticism is always welcome! (Keep in mind I'm not good at taking criticism so If i say something that sounds too defensive that's why.)