Hiya guys! I've decided to upload this story here because my updates for A shot for you are so slow. xD All of these are small one-shots and headcannons I have, so they're already finished and won't be getting in of any major fanfics! Mostly just here for you to check out if you're curious. :3 Enjoy!
All he realized at first was pounding, on his door. It wasn't the best thing for this hot-head to wake up to in the morning either. Who was said hot-head you might ask? Raphael. The second eldest muntant ninja turtle. Why was there pounding at the door? Not even he knew. With that being said, the red masked turtle, who currently wasn't wearing his mask growled and grabbed the nearest thing to his hammock- a book Leo had given him for Christmas- and threw it at the door. Everything was quiet again, and the ever present pounding stopped much to his relief.
As he started to fall back to sleep though, the pounding came back. Either someone was trying to get killed, or someone really needed him. With a groan the red masked turtle got out of his hammock, grabbing his mask and putting it on while walking to the door.
"Ya betta be dyin' or bleedin' when I open that door or I'mma kill ya."
As he opened the door he was surprised to see Leo frowning, arms crossed over his plastron.
"You slept all day Raphael. Again. It's time for us to go on patrol. Donnie needs some new things for his lab too."
"What're we standin' here for then?"
Raphael walked past Leo, and jumped down to the floor below were Donnie and Mikey were waiting. He ignored the statement about him sleeping all day, he always did these days. Raphael had started sneaking topside every night to stop the local street punks although Leo seemed to be catching on, he still didn't have proof.
"Jeez Raphael! You're like sleeping beauty, all you ever do is like, sleep dude!" Mikey grinned, poking Raph's forehead.
As he slapped Mikey's hand away, giving him a glare he tried to ignore Donnie looking at him worriedly.
"Have you been feeling sick Raph?"
Now it was Donnie's turn to be glared at.
"I feel fine! Can't a turtle get some extra sleep?!" He yelled, giving all three of his brothers a disappointed glare before walking ahead and into the sewers, towards the next manhole that led to the city above them.
Even though Raphael had been healthy, healed, and apologized to Leo for four months now, his three brothers still treated him as if he was ill, and when he got angry, they would stop bothering him like he might attack. Which he could, although he had been working on his temperment things didn't really change, so he gave up.
"Raph! Leo said he would take Mikey on patrol and you could help me at the dump."
The second eldest turtle looked at his younger brother, who was holding a brown sack and a list.
With a quiet growl towards Leo, he nodded and began running. "Let's go then." He yelled as Donnie ran with him.
As they ran, and did summersaults and flips, Donnie watched Raphael, he wasn't slower, or less balanced. Raphael was obviously okay, so then why was he sleeping all day? Unless he was depressed.
"Hey Raphie, I was wondering, you don't complain about not going topside as much anymore. Why is that?"
Raphael hesitated before answering, "Dunno. Jus' no point, whenever I go topside all of ya watch me like a hawk."
He grumbled, landing on a building and stopping, pointing down to the alley below where a man was pulling on a girl's purse. Then Raphael jumped down, grabbed the man and slammed his head into the concrete hard enough to knock him out, but not hard enough to kill him.
The lady screamed and ran away, and Raphael climbed the fire escape back up to the building.
"That was a bit rough, wasn't it?"
"Nah, he'll be fine."
"Raph..."
"Drop it Donnie."
Raphael sent Donnie a glare and he ignored it, looking down at his list instead, "Let's hurry then."
With that, they began running again.
Currently, the turtles were all sitting inside the lair, Raphael eating a slice of cheese pizza -he'd missed all three meals today since he'd been sleeping- Donnie was cooped up in his lab, Leo was meditating with Master Splinter, and Mikey was playing video games. The usual of course.
This was the only night Raphael didn't go out, not because he didn't want to, but because tomorrow they had training, and they had patrol. They had patrol once a week, and training the morning after. Sometimes Splinter had surprise training sessions, but those were usually meditating so Raphael didn't mind.
"Raph, you're gonna eat all the pizza dude! I planned on have that for breakfast!"
"I was hungry Mikey, shuddap."
"But-"
"Don't make me beat you."
Mikey pouted and stuck his tongue out, and Raphael rolled his eyes. Stating that he was going to sleep. He was still tired, and the sleep would help for tomorrow morning when it was time to train.
Jumping up to the second floor of their home, Raphael went into his room and closed the door, yawning and laying in his hammock. Usually he'd be getting ready to go out, making a checklist in his head of what he needed and if he had it with him. Tonight though, he'd sleep. Tomorrow night he'd go back to his vigilante get up like usual. With those thoughts in his mind he fell asleep.
Downstairs Donnie sat in his lab, not really working on anything important but just playing with a computer panel out of boredom. That was until Leo walked in. "What're you working on Donnie?" He asked.
"Nothing much, did you need anything? Did Master Splinter break the toaster again? Luckily I got a-"
"No Donnie. I just wanted to ask you about Raphael."
The purple masked turtle blinked and tilted his head, "What about him?"
"Did he complain? About have to look for things instead of go on patrol?"
"No actually, we ran into one street thug and Raph knocked him out, then we kept moving."
"He's up to something, Donnie. I just know it." Leo spoke as he leaned against the metallic table Donnie was sitting at, "I mean he hasn't complained about going topside in weeks."
"I asked him about it, he said he saw no point to it. He said he goes out twice every week already and that we watch him like a hawk while he's out." Donnie put the computer panel down and looked at Leo worriedly, "I think he's depressed."
This made Leo tilt his head, and he was quiet for a moment before speaking up, "Why would he be?"
The purple masked turtle shrugged, looking at the panel as he thought. "It could be a number of things. I mean, we're mutants who live under the sewers and need to hide from people even though we protect them. He did get fatally wounded about a year ago too. He has a bad temper and doesn't let people in, keeps his emotions to himself. All of them can lead to depression really."
Leo frowned, "So what do we do?"
"I'm not sure yet. I don't know of he's depressed for sure either. I need to give it a few days, but he has devoloped symtoms of depression. Sleeping a lot, losing interest in the things he enjoys, eating habits."
"Eating habits?"
"He doesn't eat all day, then, at night, he takes the left over pizza and eats it all before going back to bed."
Leo nodded and pushed himself off the table, "We'll keep an eye on him then."
"Just don't make it too obvious, he's already annoyed enough with us watching hin during patrol..."
"Don't worry Donnie. I'm going to bed, it's late and we have training in the morning."
The third eldest turtle nodded, "Sounds like a good idea." He too stood up and stretched his arms, yawning as he did so and following Leo out of the lab.
Leo pointed at the couch where a snoring Mikey was, Donnie smirking and chuckling lightly before telling Leo goodnight and jumping up to his room on the second floor, getting into his bed and getting comfortable as well.
Sadly, Donatello had never been a morning person. So when Leo had woken him up that morning, it took him a few minutes to get up, and when he did the first thing he did was stumble tiredly into the kitchen and start the coffee maker with a yawn. As that was going he quietly sat down at the table, thinking of the day ahead of him. After training Raphael usually took a shower, and slept, only leaving the room to grab a drink, sometimes he'd be awake and Donnie could hear him in his room, practicing, and sometimes he'd go into the dojo to practice.
Today he'd ask Raphael to help him try out the new turtlecycle he had made. Raphael had a weird fondness for motorcycles so he'd say yes.
"Donnie, you look tired " Mikey teased as he flopped into the chair across from his older brother, kicking his feet up onto the table
Donnie grunted and stared at Mikey's feet in disgust before getting up to pour his cup of coffee. Leo, who had just come downstairs and also seemed disgusted by the fact that Mikey's feet were on the table, slowly sat down while staring at his youngest brother. "Why are your feet on the table Mikey?"
"Sorry dude."
Leo frowned as Mikey took his feet off the table and put his arms there instead, laying his head ontop his arms, staring at the sink before looking over to Donnie. "Who's gonna wake up Raph and his attitude?"
"No one needs tah wake me up Mikey." Came a gruff reply behind and Donnie couldn't help but bite back a laugh when Mikey almost fell out of his chair.
"Yo Donnie! Make me a cuppa that stuff will ya?" Came Raph's response, as he ignored Mikey completely and sat down beside Leo, laying his head on the table.
"When did you start drinking coffee Raph? I thought you said you hated it?" Leo asked with an amused expression and Raphael just frowned.
"Shaddup Leo." He murmed, glaring at the other as Donnie put a hot cup of black coffee infront of Raphael.
The purple masked ninja knew Raphael shouldn't be tired, but then again, his older brother was never much of a morning person so maybe he was just grumpy. He took a sip of his coffee and looked at his other three brothers, Leo was silently reading today's paper that April probably left for them, Mikey was sleeping at the table, and Raph had downed his coffee and was whistling.
"You know, it's probably not good to drink coffee like that Raph."
The red masked turtle just grunted and shrugged.
."S'probably not good to drink five cups every mornin' either. Don't see ya slowin' down though."
"Well I-" Just the Master Splinter walked in, a smile on his face.
"Good morning my sons."
"Good morning Master Splinter." Leo seemed to speak for all of them as Donnie took a sip of his coffee, Mikey had just woken up, and Raph was staring into his empty cup with a frown.
"You are quiet this morning, my sons. Is there anything you wish to tell me?" The giant rat asked suspiciously, but his sons all looked up at him and shook their heads.
Donatello watched as Raphael tapped on his glass silently, before grunting and taking the cup to the sink, walking to the dojo, Leonardo blinked, and looked at the other two. "What's his problem?"
"Dude, maybe he's just excited for training!"
"Let's all join your brother." Master Splinter replied, although you could see the confusion in his eyes.
The other three nodded and followed their sensei into the dojo, on the walk Donatello thought about Raphael's behavior, he didn't make rude comments, he didn't tease Mikey...Actually, Raphael seemed to be in his own little world, like he was blocking them out.
He put these thoughts to the back of his mind as they entered the dojo and kneeled before Master Splinter.
"Training will be short today. You are to practice your katas and that is all."
Now this was strange. Master Splinter never made training this short, at least without reason. Though he wasn't telling them the reason this time.
"Yes Master Splinter." All four turtles spoke at once, before their sensei nodded, and went into a small room on the side of the dojo where he meditated.
As they all stood and looked at each other questioningly. Although none had the answer to why training was so short so they all began.
Raphael was sitting in his room, swaying in his hammock, he wasn't alseep, or tired, but just going through his mental checklist. As he did so, he spun one of his beloved sais around his finger, whistling as he thought. Leo didn't seem as intent on bothering him about his sleeping habits, which bothered Raph even more. That meant he knew something, which meant he'd probably be waiting for him later tonight. Who knows, but he didn't have time to think about the subject more because someone started knocking on his door.
Frowning, afterall usually he was left alone at this time he walked over to the door and opened it, "What is it Donnie?" the red masked turtle asked, leaning against the door frame.
"I was uhm...wondering if you wanted to help me with the turtlecycle. I changed a few things I figured you'd be interested."
Raph grunted before nodding and pushing himself off the doorframe with a smirk, "Sounds fun." He replied, putting the sai he had been spinning around his finger back into his belt.
Donnie grinned and nodded, leading Raphael to the garage where the kept their automobiles.
Raphael was of course, happy to come along. He enjoyed motorcycles a lot and he loved when Dontello let him help. Although usually Donnie built the turtlecycle, and Raphael added things, or worked on it himself to make it faster, once he broke the breaks, so he wouldn't have to stop, but once Donatello had figured out he fixed them.
"I put some new breaks in, and changed the tires. I also made it a little bit faster, I figured you'd take it for a test run?"
Raphael grinned. "Course I will." He replied, running his hand along the leather seat.
"Thanks Raph, it'll help, really. I'm still busy trying to fix Mikey's shellcell. Again."
"Anytime Donnie-boy." Raph replied and hopped onto the turtlecycle, turning it on, Don quickly opebed the door for him and Raphael was gone, flying down the alley and to the mainstreet, Donnie hadn't even seen him grab his helmet.
Raphael meanwhile was speeding down the highway, a grin on his face as he went as fast as he could, swerving around cars and back into an alley before hitting a dead end and stomping on the breaks, stopping mere inches from the wall. He could smell the tireburn.
Oh well.
He'd worry about it later though, right now he had to get back to the lair and get ready for tonight. Maybe even bring this baby with him. With that thought in mind he started the engine again, and this time, headed back to home.
He'd be busy tonight.