Brotherly Bonds

Baby Brothers

Took me a while to come up with some new ideas that I liked. Figuring out all the intricacies of the sequel to Pick Portals is stressing me out. We'll see how it turns out. Anyway, this idea came to me today and I just ended up typing it all out in one go. Hope you enjoy! :)

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Rain wasn't exactly Raph's favorite kind of weather. He liked clouds well enough, but rain just made the ground more slippery. He didn't really care about getting wet, of course. Being a turtle was nice that way. But what he didn't like about rain was it impaired visibility and slowed things down. He couldn't drive fast in the rain, he couldn't sprint across rooftops without taking an occasional dive, and he couldn't hear as well. All in all, rain dulled the senses. Though, in retrospect, it was the same on the flipside. Chances are, his enemies wouldn't see him coming. Or in this case, the person he was currently seeking, who wasn't an enemy at all. Quite the opposite, actually. Not surprising that the idiot would go running off topside even in this kind of weather. Raph sighed and peered out across the wishy-washy city skyline. Unfortunately, when his baby brother got upset, it never ended well.

Mikey had been acting weird for a while, but they'd all just put it down to stress. A stupid mistake, Raph realized now. Everything had seemed okay, until yesterday when Mikey had gone an entire day without even speaking to any of them. Since Don was fully engrossed on a project and Leo was deep in meditation for most of the day, it had been Raphael who'd ended up bringing it to their attention.

"He's probably concocting some big prank or something, Raph. Don't worry."

Raph scoffed. Don't worry. Hah.

It was a good thing that he was worried, because he was also the first one to notice when Michelangelo went topside for pizza and was gone more than an hour. He called Mikey's shell cell and the little shit didn't answer him. Raph was a hothead and a tough, shell-kicking fighter, whose temper could be a pain in the ass, but he wasn't made of stone. He loved his little brother, even if Mikey did annoy the crap out of him most of the time. He called a grand total of five times at five minute intervals before chucking his shell cell at the wall and storming through the lair to inform his brothers of Mikey's absence.

Leonardo had glared at him at the intrusion of such a furious aura in the sanctity of the dojo, but Raph had glared right back and spat out:

"Mikey's in trouble."

Leo had sprung to his feet with fire in his eyes. Looking back on the moment, Raph grinned a little. They were all real partial to Mikey. They loved the guy and cherished him for what he was: their baby brother. There was nothing they wouldn't do for him. Well, almost nothing, sometimes Mikey could think up some pretty ridiculous stuff. Even so, Raphael was aware that sometimes they humored the knucklehead a bit more than was healthy, but it just showed how much they cared for the little guy.

And Don, whose braininess clashed so readily with Mikey's childlike simplicity, was close as could be to their little brother. When Raph had stomped into the lab and told him the same thing he'd told Leo, the brainiac had been tripping over his words, he was so worried.

Raph had told them of his five consecutive attempts to call Michelangelo and the lack of an answer and both the other turtles shared his concern. Leo, ever the leader, attempted to take control of the situation.

"Where did he say he was going?"

"Pizza run."

Leo paused, rubbing his chin as he carefully weighed their options.

Raph lost patience. "That was over an hour ago, Leo! I've called him five times, he didn't answer me. The rain is coming down in buckets out there. There are a million different things that could have happened to him."