Brotherly Bonds

Young at Heart

                 

An eighteen-year-old mutant ninja turtle sat out on the porch at the old farmhouse thinking about his life. Contrary to what one might think, this was not at all unusual. Not for him.

Truth be told, Leonardo had been pondering the circumstances of his life since his childhood and he often wondered whether or not his brothers did the same. He had once asked his younger brother, who was more in-tune with emotions than any of his other siblings, and he had not gotten straight answer. Then again, Raphael almost never gave a straight answer when it came to those types of questions.

His brothers had to, he thought, have looked back on their lives at some point or another, the way he often did. How could they not? It was a natural thing to do, wasn't it?

But the four turtle brothers hadn't exactly had all the time in the world to sit around and think. Especially over the last two years. They'd been busy saving the city, and in some cases, even the world. Their life was a demanding one that required constant work, time and effort to maintain. Not to mention the amount of grit and dedication that went into their ninja training.

It felt nice to get away to the farmhouse for a little while. To escape the bright lights, the big city, and most importantly the relentless work they had to do in New York. Oddly enough, it had been Raphael who had suggested the trip. Though they were initially shocked, after their arrival Donnie, Mikey, Splinter and Leo had soon realized that Raphael seemed to be just as at ease here as he was in the city, no matter how much he said otherwise. He was just whining to keep up his tough-city-guy persona. Even more surprisingly, that big-city attitude hadn't lasted very long.

Raphael was opening up a little. He was reverting slightly to the way he had been when they were children. Donnie and Mikey seemed shocked by the radical change in Raph's behavior from a loud-mouthed badass, to a rather loud-mouthed cheerful and simplistic young adult. Not too simplistic, though, since he still indulged in working on his bike for a couple of hours every day.

For some reason this change in Raph had really thrown Donnie and Mikey off. They had been much more surprised than Leo was. Why, he wasn't entirely sure, though he suspected that it was because most of the walls the hothead usually surrounded himself with were down.

Raphael was acting, Leo thought, much like a human child portrayed in the movies about country farms and things. He constantly went on long runs through the fields, and he usually brought something interesting back with him.

It was beautiful up here of course. And it contrasted greatly to the sewers that they had grown up in.

Leo briefly found himself thinking about how different their life might have been if they had lived out in the country, in a place like this, rather than in the sewers of the great metropolis. Is this what Raph would have been like? So open, free and limitless? It was hard to imagine. His younger brother had always been such a puzzle to him. A puzzle that was impossible to solve. Every time Leo thought he'd finally put together all the pieces, there would always be a couple that just wouldn't fit. It was vexing. And yet, as he watched his brother running through the fields, filling the bird feeder with seeds, digging a trench out down to the field so the rain wouldn't wash them away, training in the woods amongst the trees, skipping stones across the pond, hopping across the river, Leo couldn't help but smile. Raph really was his little brother. It was obvious, no matter how much Raph tried to hide it, that he was happy here. He was free. He wasn't being contained. Leo had fleeting memories of Raph mentioning how much he hated being confined to the sewers, to a small space, and that sometimes he just wanted to get out there and run.

Raphael acted like a child here. Perhaps that was what had surprised Donnie and Mikey. Raph's cynicism always made him seem older than his actual age, but there are rare moments, when he indulges, that he could actually seem younger. Of course, whenever he acts immaturely or hotheadedly he is definitely acting like a child, but Leo was really thinking about the times when Raphael, even as a teenager, would seem like the little eight-year-old Raphael he remembered from their childhood.