Orphanage December 1998

"Either way, there has been another family that seemed to be interested in one of them."

"This fast?" She frowned. "I can't understand why they are so interested in these boys.. "

But Hamato Yoshi had known why at the moment, even if he hadn't heard the statement, he read the newspaper. He had read on the internet how his youngest son, Michelangelo, had been adopted only 5 months after his arrest. And a month later he was forced to read how Raphael had been adopted as well. Children that weren't his anymore.

And it was all the fault of his former friend, Oroku Saki.

He has been stuck here for 7 months, seven whole months of not seeing his sons while missing his wife dearly. And to make things worse, he heard about the adoptions, the interest that they had in his sons. And every day there was only one thing on his mind, proving his innocence and getting back his sons. It took him too long.

Two weeks after Raph was adopted before another article was published in the newspaper, this time making headlines.

Yoshi Hamato set free, innocence proven.

He had spent every penny that he could find on the search, finding every shred of evidence that would prove that he wasn't guilty, and meanwhile trying to convince the orphanage not to put Leonardo and Donatello up for adoption. He had sent mails, letters, but nothing ever came back. Until one day he got one letter.

Another family had been deemed qualified to adopt Leonardo. It would only be a matter of weeks, maybe days before the papers were done.

But it never got that far.

Chris Bradford arrested for the murder of Tang Shen 7 months ago.

Yoshi knew that it was actually Saki, and not Bradford who was behind the murder. Saki had framed Bradford to prevent his cover from being blown. Because he knew Yoshi was close to unfolding and exposing the truth. So he framed Chris Bradford for the murder, forced him to confess.

Just like Saki had framed him for the murder. How he had left his blood after at the crime scene, and how he had tempered with all the experiments to lock Yoshi up. All because of the ransom and the false evidence at the crime scene.

And take his sons from him.

All for revenge.

TMNT

The following night, the night after the newspaper was released, the orphanage had burned down. Half of the children weren't lucky, and neither were the workers of the orphanage, and they burned along with all the documents and papers. The computers crashed and all the data on the Hamato boys had been removed.

Police claimed it was an accident.

But for Saki it was altering his plan. The data destroyed, the two humans in charge of the Hamato children murdered… this way Yoshi could never know who had adopted his children. And could never get them back. He would make sure that he wouldn't.

But even he had to admit that it was never his plan to let the children suffer. That was just bad luck.

It had taken Yoshi another 2 weeks of filling out papers, but after those weeks he could finally see his sons again, and take them home. His sons, which were now legally only Donatello and Leonardo.

He had bought another home. A large space next to the waters in Manhattan. He received a huge compensation for his imprisonment. 7 months in prison, and on top of that 2 of his sons were lost, unable to be tracked down. That was irreversible damage, and he received a lot.

He bought his apartment with the money, and for the following years he used the money he received, and already had to track down his sons. Albeit knowing he'd be too late once he found them. He knew Saki after all, he wanted to make him suffer.

And the best way to make a father suffer, was to take his children.

And while not planned,

they'd suffer in return.

TMNT

"What did he say?" Jack asks the moment I walk out of the room, shutting the door as quietly as possible.

"Maybe we should get home. I think dad wants to know as well" I suggest and Jack nods.

"That's probably for the best, come on I'll drive" Jack responds, leading me to the outside. I was glad to be outside to be honest. That building gave me the creeps, and the people there were either police, nurses or victims.

Jack leads me over to his car and I immediately get into the car, mindlessly watching out of the window as we drove over to my house.

"Hey Yoshi, I'm heading home with Leo right now… yea, he talked, Leo wanted to tell all of you at the same time" Jack said, looking at the phone that was standing on the dashboard. "Raph and Don home? … Okay good, they'd wanna hear this as well."

Again there was a silence, and vaguely I could hear dad talking on the other side of the line. I deliberately averted my gaze from Jack, rubbing my fingers along my temples as a mild headache was building up. It was simply too much information too soon. Like literally 2 days ago I had no idea I had 3 little brothers. Only knowing of Raph's and Donnie's existence.

And now I had another brother. I sighed, placing my cheek against the window.

It took us like 10 minutes to get home and I silently made my way into the house. Almost as expected, dad was waiting on me with a cup of tea in his hand.

"Welcome home Leonardo, Jack" He acknowledged our presence.

"Hey dad" I said, slightly above a whisper. Dad seemed to catch on on my distress and put a hand on my shoulder.

"I just made tea, it's still warm if you want a cup. Same goes for you Jack" He says, leading me towards the kitchen.

"Thanks, but if you don't mind I just want to get this over with" I tell him and he nods confidently.

"I assumed so" Dad replies and I quickly made a detour towards the kitchen, pouring myself two cups of tea before making my way over to the living room. And again, as expected, Raph and Donnie were already sitting on the couch.

"Hey" Donnie greeted me with a sad smile.

"Hey yourself" I joked weakly, seating myself on one of the comfortable chairs. Donnie and Raph were sitting on the same couch while dad and Jack took a seat on the other one.

"I got Mikey to talk today, I just.. I didn't want to pressure him too much so I don't have much, but hopefully we can use it." I start before telling them the whole story. Well story wasn't the right word. It was practically one piece of everything. That he had only been involved with them for around 4 years. But it somehow seemed to ease dad considerably.

Of course, because the alternative was much worse. 4 years was much better than your whole life.

After I was done talking there was a short silence before Jack stood up.

"I need to run this through the database, see if something happened four years ago. But I'm sorry Leo, I don't think there's much we can do with the information regarding his family or anything like that"

I nod silently, already expecting it actually. Of course knowing he'd been there 4 years wouldn't suddenly reveal every little secret about Mikey. We didn't even know if they were his real family, or at least the ones that raised him. That was something that was kept untold, a secret Mikey knew the answers to, but wasn't willing to share.

"I will go with you" Dad announces and looks over to me, and I give him an assuring nod, which he gratefully returns.

"Did you find anything while I was gone?" I ask, directing my gaze to Don and Raph the moment we were left alone. Don nods absently, gesturing me to follow him. I comply, following my two little brothers to Donnie's room. Raph sat down on the bed, while Don took his place on his office chair while I stood behind him, one hand on the chair.

"Jack kept the discovery mostly hidden. They know about the uncover but they kept all of the names out except for the boss' name. And all of this won't be on his criminal record, so not even the police will know about it."

"Kinda obvious since he was over there against his will" Raph butts in but Don shakes his head.

"Actually, most of the times they do get punished for something like that. But Jack managed to get the girls and Mikey a second chance so to speak"

I lean a bit closer to the screen, skimming over the pages of the article that was now being displayed on Donnie's computer. Mikey had been the only boy over there, and the only minor along with 2 other girls that were 17 years old. At least, that's what I've heard from Jack. That particular information wasn't in the articles.

Removed, or kept out, to avoid anyone finding out it was Mikey, or the other girls.

To avoid anyone finding out that our little brother was connected to the headline.

'Brothel uncovered, 22 people freed" And then the article goes on about the fact that there was only one boy, a boy among 2 men and 19 females. 2 of which were still girls. And all of them had been forced into the business.

"Me and Don have been searching.. " Raph starts as Donnie opens up another screen. "Look, whateva you say. I never experienced the same shit as Mikey did so we wanted to know what to do when…. y'know"

"When we take him in?" I finish his sentence, causing a weird look from my two little brothers. "I talked with Jack about it, I just figured dad must've talked to you about it while I was gone." I explained.

"But the question is if you do. Do you want to take Mikey in as our little brother?" Don asks us and I turn my head slightly and raised an eyebrow, almost jokingly to mock the obvious answer to the question.

"He's our little brother, if he wants to, we take him in" I answer and that's the only answer Don and Raph need.

"He'll need a family after all the shit he's been through"

I drop the slight smirk that was on my face, gazing at the screen again. Several taps were opened on the internet. All of them sporting roughly the same title. 'Aftermath of forced prostitution'.

"Hey Raph" I call out, looking away from the screen and towards my little brother. "I need to ask you a favour"

TMNT

It had been two days before Mikey had built up enough strength to go out of public normally again. After Leo had visited him that Sunday, two days ago, he had been eating again, luckily at least. Because even when I saw him for the first time just an hour ago, he was still way too thin.

"You look like him" Mikey mutters, studying him with almost dull blue eyes. But there was still a glimmer in them, signalling the lost childhood.

"What?" I ask him with confusion, taking another hesitant step towards the boy. The boy, My little brother, tensed at the intrusion but keeps eyeing at me.

"You look like Leo"

"Oh that, seems right, we're twins" I say, taking another step. Why the hell did I have to be so fucking careful around him?! That shit just wasn't right.

"I know, he told me about you, you're Raph.. right?" he adds the last word hesitantly, as if he was afraid to ask the question at all in the first place.

"The one and only" I reply with a small smirk. "Now get dressed, we're going out" At this Mikey frowns in confusion, turning his body slightly so he was facing me.

"Out?" He questions and I nod.

"I'm assumin' you have some boots, or pants" I snicker, gesturing to the sweatpants he was wearing. At this Mikey scoffs almost angrily, sliding off his bed and I grimly notice the slight stiffness that was in his movements.

Mikey quickly changes into a normal pair of pants and slips on some worn out sneakers.

"We ain't going far though. Actually yer not even allowed out yet, but Jack managed to arrange something" I tell him, opening the door of his room. Mikey seemed a bit confused, still, but he complied and walked out of the room where an officer was standing. When Mikey spotted the officer he stopped dead in his tracks, even going as far as taking a step back.

I scoff slightly. "You're scaring 'im Pete"

"Dang, that intimidating?" Pete responded and I bark out a laugh.

"Oh you wish, you couldn't even scare a puppy if you wanted to"

"Hey, I resent that! I carry a gun" Pete smirks. "But in all seriousness, have fun, but don't stray too far"

I turn my head back to Mikey, who had relaxed a bit during our conversation but was still wary Pete standing there.

"C'mon" I motion for Mikey to follow me and he hesitantly follows him. He has his hands in the pockets of his hoodie and keeps glancing around, wary of everything and everyone that he encounters. There were a couple of long glances when we left the building but luckily every guard had received the message that we were clear to leave.

"Did Leo made you do this?" Mikey suddenly asked and I looked at him.

"He ain't making me do anything, he asked me to" I reply without a doubt. "He said ya kept staring out of the window, and he kinda jumped to the conclusion that ya hadn't been outside much these last few years" I continue, maybe stupidly.

A silence is the only response I'm met with, but I decide not to press it. From what i've heard from Leo that's the last thing I wanted to do, and that Mikey's silence was something that'd occur very often. We walked for a while, approaching the park quickly, it wasn't far away to begin with anyway.

"He's right" Mikey eventually utters. "They thought I would…" The blond turns his head away in shame.

"They thought you'd get away" I finish for him but Mikey doesn't confirm it in any way, he stays silent and he doesn't nod or even look at me. Deciding against breaking the silence, we continued to walk to the park without saying anything.

Eventually we approached the park and Mikey actually stopped to stare at the sight in front of him. It was mid-fall, after school and children were running around the park. Laughing, playing and enjoying themselves. Parents were standing in small groups or sitting comfortably on the benches, occasionally watching their children.

There were several heaps of leaves, a few of them being used to jump in right now. Laughter of children echoed through the large park and I looked at Mikey again, who was still staring in wonder and also slight confusion. I can feel a sense of familiarity wash over me, I had been like that 5 years ago, when Leo and Don brought me to the park for the first time.

"What? Never seen one in yer life?" I tease lightly, but honestly it was more to try and get some answers out of him. And I wasn't pushing him, if he wanted me to tell if he'd ever been or not, he could tell me. At least, I hoped he'd catch on.

"Long time ago" Mikey mutters, anxiously looking at the ground.

I nodded, at least happy i got this out of him. "Let's go somewhere a little more comfortable" I tell him, actually unzipping the jackets lightly because it was still significantly hot in fall. I led Mikey over to a small hill, sitting down on it and viewing the playing children in front of me.

After a hesitant minute, Mikey sat down on the grass as well.

"Don and Leo took me 'ere when I was just adopted." I start, not actually looking at Mikey but keeping tabs on him through the corner of my eyes. "My caretakers were assholes who never took me to ta park, so I had no freaking clue what to do here." I continued, still refusing to acknowledge them as my parents.

They never were, not adopted, not biological.

"I didn't know shit about having fun, I wasn't allowed. Had no clue why jumping in leaves was so freaking enjoyable. But Leo and Don tricked me into it, literally" I told him, deliberately not looking at him, so he wouldn't feel obligated to say something in return, which he didn't.

After a good 10 minutes of silence I looked at him curiously, and with a smirk on my face I saw Mikey intensely staring at the playing children in front of us, occasionally looking around to look at all the plants and nature around us. Eventually he turned to me, our eyes locking for a few seconds but he immediately redirected his gaze, looking at the playing kids again.

"Mikey" I eventually ask, nudging him slightly. The blonde startled slightly, tensing up. "Dunno if ya ever heard Jack talk about it but ya obviously can't stay there for the rest of your life. Most kids get sent to an orphanage if family can't be found but.. biologically we're \ family Mike"

I tell him, silencing myself and Mikey looks down on the grass, picking a few strands and letting them fly into the wind. His eyebrows knit in concentration and he scowls slightly before relaxing his face with difficulty.

"Where are you going with this?" He eventually whispers.

"You're 15, so you can't live on your own yet. But I, and the rest, want to know what you were going to do. If you're willing to live with us, or not"

At this Mikey's breath hitched slightly, and he looked at me with disbelief before averting his gaze yet again, a defeated look in his eyes.

"I wanted to look for my aunt" He eventually whispers and I can actually feel my heart sink into my chest.

"Yer aunt?" I press him gently.

"My .. dad. When he was younger he had a fight with his sister, a bad one, and he cut off all contact with her." He tells me in a quiet voice. "I never met my aunt, and I never had the chance after the moment they… " Mikey falls silent.

"When they forced you into.. prostitution?" I ask, deciding to just confront him. Mikey tenses at the word but shakes his head furiously.

"They never did, they didn't know about that" Mikey mumbles. "They never lived long enough to know" This time it was my turn to be shocked beyond belief. I look at him with worried eyes. So that meant..

"Your parents died when you were 11?" I ask, remembering the conversation he shared with Leo, or the conversation Leo told me. That he had been in that hell-hole for four years.

"10" He says and I frown in confusion. He said he'd been there for four years, so when he was 11. But his parents died.. when he was ten?

"But you were 11 when.." I stopped mid-sentence, knowing Mikey knew what I was hinting at. The blond squeezes his eyes shut before abruptly standing up and walking away.

"Mikey!" I yell, before chasing him down. He wasn't running, he wasn't even trying to get away from me honestly. "Why'd ya walk away?" I ask, catching up and walking besides him. His hands were back in the pocket of his hoodie and the hood was pulled over his head to shield himself from anyone who was looking.

"I want to go back" he says, an angry tone in his voice. Recognising the mad tone in his voice I sigh.

"Shit Mike.. I didn't mean to press ya like this" I tell him but Mikey doesn't answer, keeping a steady pace towards the facility again. It took us half the time to get there and he immediately walked straight up to his assigned room, not looking or speaking to anyone.

I shot Jack a worried look on my way into the building but continued to follow Mikey, alone. He entered his room without waiting for anyone or caring about the two men that were in the 'living room' part of his room.

I reluctantly followed him, shutting the door between his bedroom and the living room part. Mikey crawled onto the bed, averting his gaze, but I already saw. Fresh tears leaking down his face.

"Shit" I cursed softly but Mikey seemed to hear me as he turned his head towards me, until he lowered it again. Tear streaks were clearly visible on his cheeks and he seemed to be trembling. "Sorry I fucked up, ya want to be alone right?" I say, mentally slapping myself for being so utterly stupid.

Mikey nods slightly and I turn around, leaving the room.

Unaware, and too late to hear the slowly increasing sobs, the increasing breath intake, and the upcoming panic attack.

TMNT

So we finally know what happened to Mikey, what'd you think of it? And the chapter in general? Please let me know, feed the hungry author :D