Brotherly Bonds

A Child's Doubts

Leo was following Sensei around the kitchen, going on and on about something-or-other. Sensei was smiling. Slowly, timidly, he pulled on his father's robe. Master Splinter looked down at him with a gentle, but warning gaze. "Raphael, do not interrupt."

Disheartened he turned away and left the kitchen. He saw Donnie in the corner doing something to the toaster. "Hey Donnie, wanna see what I made?" He asked hopefully.

Donatello shook his little head from side to side. "Sorry Raph, I'm right in the middle of this. I'll come by later."

Raph sighed. With Donnie, later always ended up being never. It wasn't Donnie's fault. He would say later, but when later came around he'd get distracted and head off to do something else. Raph turned and headed down the hall to his room. On the way he passed Mikey's door. He peeked in.

Mikey was on the bed playing with his action figures. Oh well, he probably wouldn't have been interested anyway.

The little turtle returned to his room and shut the door. He looked down at the heavy, slightly bent piece of metal laying in the center of the room.

He had found it out in the sewer tunnels a few weeks earlier and forced Leo to help him carry it back to the lair. It was pretty. A lot cleaner than the things they usually found in the sewer, and even though it was thin, it had weighed too much for him to carry it all by himself. He'd made Leo promise not to tell Master Splinter about it. Then he'd gotten to work. He quickly discovered that his normal markers didn't work very well on the metal. But when he tried permanent marker it worked a lot better. The only permanent marker he had was black, but he decided it would have to do. There was a wall in the main room that was blank and that was where Sensei displayed all of their drawings. But Raph didn't want to just make a drawing. He wanted to make the biggest and best drawing ever. So he got to work. He drew his entire family, including himself. Then he stepped back and looked at it. It looked good, but without color it felt like it was missing something. And that was when he'd looked in his box of art related things and saw the superglue. He smiled.

It had taken him a whole week of scavenging to find everything that he needed. He even found an extra tube of superglue, which was an added bonus. Once he had everything he'd gotten back to work on his masterpiece. He used slivers of wood and cardboard to make the first letter of each of their names. He painted them red, orange, blue and purple. He painted Master Splinter's capital s white. He wanted to paint it red, but he didn't think his brothers would like that. Once all the paint was dry, he carefully glued the correct letter above each of them. The superglue had dried really quickly and he'd rushed off to tell Master Splinter, but everyone was busy.

So here he was, back in his room with his masterpiece, alone. He sighed. If only there was someone to show it to. He carefully tip-toed around it and climbed up onto the end of his bed. He stared down at it. Oh well, I'll try again later. He thought to himself as he rolled over and fell asleep.

Later that night, after they'd eaten dinner and Sensei had put them to bed, Raphael got up and went cautiously to his Father's room. He peeked in and saw Splinter meditating. He gulped and knocked softly on the doorframe to get the rat's attention. Splinter opened his eyes and sighed, turning to face the door and Raphael. "Raphael, it is well past your bedtime and you know not to interrupt my meditation."

Lowering his head, he timidly responded, "Can I show you something, Father?"

He received a stern glare. "No, you may not. Please go back to bed, Raphael."

Suddenly, Raph was desperate. "Please? I tried to ask you earlier but you were talking to Leo and you told me not to interrupt. Well, I didn't interrupt! Please, let me show it to you?"