(3282 Words)

"RAPH'S WHAT!?" Leo puts a hand on his little brother's shoulder as they stand outside the school, staring into his baby blue eyes and rolling his own. "He's staying over at Casey's. It's fine Mikey." Mikey throws his brother's hand away from him. "Like- Like all night and stuff?!" Leo shrugs. "Yeah, probably. Just chill man, he'll be back tomorrow at school." He watches as Mikey's eyes begin to water. "Do you want me to stay up with you tonight?" He asks, already knowing the answer. The redhead bobs his head up and down quickly.

It was only three fifteen in the afternoon but the hours ahead that await them was pressing on the boy's mind harder than anything else. "Fine. But you'd better actually focus in training when we get home otherwise you're on your own." Mikey quickly bucks up and starts walking. Leo glances between the doors of the school and Mikey for a moment until Donnie comes bursting out. He scrambles over to Leo and they both start speed walking to catch up to Mikey.

"SORRY- Sorry, I got hung up talking to one of the teachers and then I ended up saying something that made him mad so I had to explain that and then he was going to send me to the principal but then just kept me for longer and yelled at me- Well not yelled but like talked loudly?" Donnie rambles on, talking about how he hated being late for things and what all held him up for a while before stopping half way back home. "Where's Raph?"

Leo goes to answer but having caught up to Mikey, is interrupted. "He's staying over at Casey's and it's totally not fair." At first it seemed like the youngest boy was actually very hurt and upset by this. "How come I don't get to have sleepovers!" He adds, turning and throwing his hands up in the air. They continue on, ignoring the obvious mood change. "Are you sure that's a good idea? I don't think Casey is the... Best of influences." Donnie says, squinting his eyes.

Leo rolls his neck out. "At this point, it's not my problem. They haven't gotten in serious trouble together- Yet- So I don't really know." Donnie taps his leg. "I guess. Do you think he asked dad first?" Leo shrugs. "I honestly don't know, and don't care. He can do what he wants. I mean he's not going to do anything while he's with Casey... Right?" They both stop and look at each-other. There's a much too long, much too awkward silence between them. "Probably?"Donnie replies.

The slowly keep walking, noticing Mikey half a street ahead of them already. "I mean he did go there that one time and he was fine. Somehow they're pretty good friends..." Donnie almost rolls his eyes as he says this. "Even though Casey is a stupid meat-headed jerk." Leo raises his eyebrows. "Um, what was that about?" Donnie taps his leg. "I heard him and April talking in the halls in between classes, and they're going to 'hang out'." He makes finger quotes as he says 'hang out'. "Do you KNOW what 'hang out' means Leo!?"

The older boy, a little taken aback, shrugs. Donnie taps his leg. "It means that they're going to go on a DATE!" Leo looks at his little, but much taller, brother. "Don, it does not mean for sure they're going on a date-" Donnie taps his leg. "You don't know that Leo! April is WAY too good for a punk like him! She's smart, and pretty, and capable, and strong- She shouldn't be with someone like him! Some dirty little street rat!" Donnie taps his leg.

As they get closer to the dojo Leo sighs and looks Donnie right in the eyes which he quickly looks away from, though Leo holds his glare. "It's fine. Even if she does like Casey and the are going on a date, you can't stop that. Love is a crazy thing and you can't really help who you fall in love with, it just happens." They go into the dojo with Donnie looking defeated. "I've told Mikey that countless times, it's just something you have to accept."

Donnie trudges up the stairs to the apartment to slowly get changed, tapping his leg one more time before he's out of view, once he was, Leo looks over at the edge of the mat covered floor to see Mikey, sitting cross-legged and ready for practice. "Oh- You're ready early." Leo comments. Mikey nods. "If I didn't get ready right away, I'd forget or I'd do something else and then I'd be late and distracted all practice." Leo raises his eyebrows. "Oh, you're really taking that seriously, huh..." He didn't realize this was that big of a deal to his little brother.

Mikey nods curtly, keeping his glare on the middle of the floor, trying almost too hard to keep his focus. Leo nearly shutters at the unusual focus. "I'll tell Father that Raph's going to be out today." He mentions and heads up to the apartment to change, leaving Mikey alone. The dojo goes quiet and Mikey's ears start to ring. He rubs them on his shoulders but keeps his gaze on the mats in front of him. 'Focus on the mats, nothing else. You loose focus and that's it, practice is gone down the drain.' He thinks to himself. He knows how his mind works. The second he stops focusing, he won't be able to get that same, or any focus back.

His concentration is broken for just a moment when he hears a sharp knock on the front door. He tries to ignore it but they knock again seeing as Mikey was in plain view of the glass door. "HEY! Is anybody gonna open the door!?" Mikey looks up sharply at the deep, gravely shout. There was a big man with growing stubble and dirty hands that left large prints on the door. The younger boy stares up and out at the man outside, his eyes wide.

He knew in his mind that this was some random guy who probably thinks he had a class right now but the correlation from his eyes to all parts of his brain was severed. All he could see was that man- That horrible man. He didn't understand what really panicking was like until now. He was frozen. It looked like he had just lifted his head and nothing else had changed but inside so much was going on.

His mind was whirling, showing him images of what happened in excruciating detail. It slowly went from what had happened to what could happen. This man out side could've been Bradford, half shaven and dirty on the run from the police, coming back for him to take him away. He could be taken and gone from his family for forever. His fear and panic turns to sadness as he thinks this. As his eyes tear up there's another bang on the door. "Hey kid!" The man shouts again.

He takes a moment after this to study the boy inside the dojo. "Uh... Kid?" He says, much quieter. Mikey could barely hear it through the door but with every word it felt like he locked his muscles and joints in place. It was such an entirely new and unreal feeling that he wanted to cry just from that. He was much more emotional than his brothers in the first place. If he felt like crying, he was going to cry.

Finally he hears someone coming down to the dojo, calming him a bit already. He watches as his father walks around him and to the door, telling the man outside that class schedules have changed. The man whispers something and points back into the dojo. A few more words were exchanged and the dirty man leaves. The next thing Mikey knows a comforting hand is on his back, making his joints feel like they unlocked and relaxed.

"Michelangelo, what's wrong hachimitsu?" As his muscles loosen, Mikey brings up a hand and wipes his eyes. "It's okay, I'm fine." He says. He mumbles a couple words before his father could actually make anything out. "-'s just really weird..." Yoshi takes his son's hand and looks at him, worried. "What happened." He asks seriously. Mikey shakes his head. "I dunno, like just- I don't know, that guy outside just made my head go all over the place and stuff."

The older man sighs and closes his eyes. "Why don't you go upstairs, you don't have to practice tonight." Mikey frowns and furrows his brows. "Why? I-" Mikey stops, having learned not to question his father extensively. "Tonight, no practice." Yoshi says again, helping him up. They walk back up to the apartment together and Yoshi lets him go and sit on the couch. "Leonardo, Donatello, it is time for training."

The two older boys follow their father to the door that lead to the dojo, but Donnie stops once he gets there. "What about Mikey?" He asks, looking back over his shoulder. "Michelangelo is taking a break for today." Yoshi replies without hesitation. Donnie stays at the top of the stairs for a moment, his mind pressing with a million questions, both for his brother and father. He does eventually stumble his way back down to practice, but not without a last glance at his little brother who looked as if he was trying to solve the hardest math problem known to man.

Mikey, once again left alone, was sitting cross-legged on the couch. He was just so confused. He wanted to stop thinking, to stop focusing on things but he had tried for too long to focus that he just couldn't stop. He could hear the birds outside, and the running of the fridge. He could hear every command from the room below him, knowing exactly what he was missing. "Ugh..." Mikey groans out, wanting any type of noise other than the constants going on around him.

"What was that even..." He mumbles to himself. He stretches his arms out in front of him and above his head. "I-... I'm gonna go text Raph." After a few days he had been granted his phone back but with plenty of restrictions and his data turned off. Mikey stands up and walks out into the hall and to his room where he had thrown his bag before changing quickly and hurrying back down to the dojo earlier. He grabs his phone out of a side pocket and has to type in his password three or four times, making mistakes with how fast he was trying to type.

He sighs and slows himself down, opening his phone and letting his fingers hover over the keyboard about to message Raph. "What am I even going to say?" He says. "Why do I keep talking to myself." Mikey laughs out, lolling his head to the side. After a couple minutes of finger hovering he finally sends a text. 'Hey dude. What's up.' He nods to himself. "That works I guess..." He sits down on the floor next to his bed and stares at his phone. He didn't like messaging people anymore but he could stand to text a brother.

He stays there, waiting for a reply for a long time, long enough for practice to end. "Mikey?" That hyper focus must've still been kicking. He looks up and behind him at a sweaty Leo looking down at him. "Oh, hey man." Mikey says with a smile. "Are you... Okay?" Mikey's brow furrows and he turns around. "Yeah, why?" He asks. Leo bends down by him. "Because you're shaking." Mikey takes a hand away from his phone and runs it through his hair. "No I'm-" He glances down at his now sole hand holding his phone, noticing the quiver in the plastic.

"-not..." Mikey didn't know what was going on. First that weird paralyzing thing in the dojo, now he's shaking, what next!? "Mikey, do you want to lay down or something? Do you need something to eat or water or anything?" Mikey shakes his head. "No, no, I'm just having a weird day..." Leo pulls Mikey up and points to the bed. "Sit down." Mikey complies and Leo leaves for just a moment and comes back with an orange water bottle and hands it to his little brother.

Mikey takes it and puts the spout to his lips. As soon as he took a drink he realized he was very thirsty. After thirty straight seconds of chugging water Mikey lets the bottle drop from his mouth. "Do you want to talk about what happened earlier? Dad told us you needed to have a break and that's not a thing you usually... Do..." The younger boy squints and lets his head bob from side to side. "I don't know, nothing really happened." He says nonchalantly. "I just saw this big guy and just kinda froze up an' stuff."

Leo holds himself back from glaring at his little brother. "That's all?" Mikey nods with a lopsided grin. "Yeah, don't worry, it's totally fine." There's a small beat of silence before Mikey pops off the bed and stands up. "Let's get something to eat, I'm starving!" Leo frowns but lets his little brother lead him away from the bedroom and to the kitchen. "Mikey, I'm not especially hungry or anything, I might just skip dinner for now and lay down."

Leo glances to the couch where Donnie had passed out already, legs flopped over the arm and hair pulled in twenty different directions. "Like Donnie. He's got the right idea." He says. Mikey ignores him. "Besides, I still have to shower. The dojo was super hot and because there was only two of us we did a lot of one on one sparring." Mikey turns around with a triple decker peanut butter and jelly sandwich. "Well it won't take long to eat this. And you said you'd stay up with me." He says, handing the sandwich to his brother and then scavenging the fridge for something else to eat.

Leo frowns at the sandwich. He didn't want to eat that, he didn't want to eat anything! He slowly meanders to the couch and moves one of Donnie's arms so he could sit down. He knew he'd made a deal, but then again, Raph wasn't here right now... The oldest boy sighs and takes a bite of the sandwich. No matter what deal he made, he couldn't let the rest of his family know. Eventually Mikey comes over with a sandwich of indescribable features, sitting on the floor below his brothers.

As the two boys eat, the silence grows thick. It wasn't a comfortable silence, it was the kind of silence you feel when you know something is wrong, but you just don't know what. Mikey takes his phone out of his pocket and brings up his texts again. None of them were read. He sends another one quickly, asking if Raph was getting any of them. Leo looks down and notices Mikey's worry. "He's probably just too busy messing around with Casey." Mikey nods. "Yeah, probably."

Leo was not prepared to stay up all night, but stay up all night he did. Mikey didn't even hint at being tired, no yawning, no head bobbing, or even slumping over. He stayed wide awake all night. They played a few recorded movies but as the night went on, they just forgot to keep something playing. Mikey had stared down at his phone nearly the entire time, going out of his messages and going back in, turning his phone off and on, restarting it, even asking to use Leo's phone to message their foster brother. He tried calling a few times near midnight but Leo assured him that he was probably just asleep by then and that was why he wasn't answering.

Near five am Leo had finally passed out, leaving Mikey as the sole brother left standing. He watches out the window as the sun rises over the city and glances back at his phone with his exhausted eyes. 'Hey Raph, morning.' He sends. He had sent over twenty texts that night, just trying to get some response. His early riser Father walks through the room, brewing a small pot of tea. "Good morning my son. You are up early, yes?" Mikey glances up and nods, looking back down at his phone.

"You must ask if Raphael will be coming home first or going to school from his friend's house. I have an opening from my morning classes so I would be available to pick him up if need be." Mikey purses his lips and looks up at his father. "I've been texting him all night and he hasn't even read any of them." He says quickly, almost running his words together. Yoshi takes his whistling kettle off the stove top and pours some into a cup. "He is with Mr. Jones, correct? Have you spoken to him?"

Mikey shakes his head and quickly switches contacts, having gotten Casey's number from Raph a while ago. He could've slapped himself for not thinking of this earlier. He quickly asks when Raph would be back and waits with his eyes glued to the screen. Not a minute later, three little bouncing bubbles appear at the bottom, soon being replaced with a message. 'Raph ditched me yesterday. Never came over and didn't tell me why either.' Mikey drops the phone and stands up, looking wide eyed at his father. "Raph's not at Casey's."

The old man puts his tea down and frowns. "What do you mean Raphael is not at Casey's" Mikey swipes his phone up and shows the screen to his father. "Casey doesn't know where Raph is, he never went to Casey's yesterday." He says in a strained voice. "Where is Raph?"

Being me can only mean
Feeling scared to breathe
If you leave me then I'll be afraid of everything
That makes me anxious, gives me patience, calms me down
Lets me face this, let me sleep, and when I wake up
Let me breathe

"Afraid"

The Neighborhood

Hahahaha... Okay so I'll be honest here... I didn't really want to write this chapter. Not because I don't like this story anymore, but because I found an old story of mine that I was revising and writing and I love it. It's another tmnt thing and I'm thinking about posting it but I want to know people will actually read it first. I don't know, maybe I'll post the first chapter and see how it goes!

Anyways, I hope you liked this chapter! Make sure to tell me what you thought and I'll see you next time! ;) (Haha, you thought you'd get to find out what happens with Raph in this chapter didn't you. XP)