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sitting there, it felt like a normal afternoon to raphael. his brothers would run out into his room, complaining about something the other did and asking for who was right and who deserves to have their head shoved into the toilet. at least, in his head he did.
sitting alone.
alone.
raph always hated being alone, it gave him massive separation anxiety. that’s what he remembered donnie calling it anyways. pizza supreme in the sky, he missed that science nerd. donnie always knew how to make him feel better when it came down to being by himself; especially after the incident.
that being mikey. mikey was the first to be gone, his time had simply just came. box turtles don’t live that long anyways, so why would mikey? maybe raph hoped that having hamato blood in him, it would counteract, right? it was on a winter day to, maybe that was why the snapping turtle doesn’t like the snow nor cold anymore.
now leo, goodness that kid was a mess half of the time. he would rush in, make it head first and come back just fine. that’s what they all thought would happen when fighting a villain, him and his two brothers … two. that always threw him off after they lost mikey. this was going to hurt him;
and it did.
it all came tumbling down on leo, making him vulnerable to be hit. getting bashed both in his face and in his shell, he didn’t know if he would actually make it. considering he was the teams medic and even he thought he was gone. that wasn’t set until his plastron was damaged and he was officially gone. from that one, donnie and raph refused to leave unless it was actually absolutely necessary.
april helped them get food when splinter didn’t feel the best to go up to the surface. she would always offer to stay the night if it would help them at all. each time raph declined. he didn’t want her to see them all so shattered and broken, like glass that had just landed on the concrete floor;bashing into a million broken pieces. that is also how fragile his heart was at this point. another mishap and —
not donnie.
when donnie left, his shell was what took him down. battleshell getting highly damaged and messed up. it caused his shell underneath it to actually break as well. making him black out and not awake again. he lost so much blood that day it wasn’t real to raph. he couldn’t believe he lost his last brother. now that he was able to live longer with his snapping turtle genes, he could outlive april too.
speaking of her, she went off to college once she hit that age. now he was alone. splinter had passed last summer due to too much heat and his sickness getting too close to his blood. when he lost his father and april wasn’t in town anymore, he just sat in his room. not wanting to touch his food, not wanting to get up and move around. he just wanted his time to come. but – it wouldn’t.
he’s never liked the going out by your own hands way, he rather let something or just life kill him. holding the teddy bear mikey gave him so many years ago, tears rolled down his poor paled out cheeks. even if his skin was green, it was now a paler color due to the lack of nutrients that he was receiving from himself. which as bad as he hates to admit, he rather be pale and slowly killing himself than not have his brothers by his side even longer.
as his feet curled into themselves, raphael felt his skin get iced cold. a feeling he hated when he was younger. it made him feel like he was dying. wait..
was he dying? was he finally about to escape this imprisonment that is being alone? sure, april won’t have any of the, anymore. but he would’ve outlived her too. maybe even to where the future that he was the only one left. stomach churning as his heart started to pound, the older felt so out of place.
why was he feeling this way? why was he feeling like he had to throw himself down and flop like a fish out of water? his stomach was what threw him off the most. did he understand why? no. he didn’t.
“ what’s… happening?” he muttered to himself.
next thing he knew, he was on the ground.
10,
9,
8,
7,
6,
5,
4,
3,
2,
1…
waking up again in some place that wasn’t his room. it wasn’t his room.
frantically looking around, he felt his chest get tight once more. oh dear everything, he –
“ raph ? what are you doing here? according to your species you wouldn't be up with us for another twenty or so years.” a monotone voice spoke, catching the elders attention.
head immediately shooting up, he clutched donnie into the largest bear hug he could obtain. tears wanting to fall down his face but since he hardly had any more left to cry he just choked back dry heaves. so he was dead. as donnie took this in, he thought about so many outcomes on why his brother was here early. it made no sense! he wasn’t the suicide type plus he swore to all things jupiter jim he wasn’t going to go back out after what happened to donnie. so why?
“ i rather not get into it buddy , i’m just glad to see you. is everyone else here too? where are they ?” raphael asked , his head tilting like mayhames would when he was curious about something.
a small exhale left the softshell as he nods, leading his older brother to where the others were at. leos loud voice could be heard a few steps away, sounding like he was yelling out at mikey about a game they were playing. sounds typical of them in all honesty. he was just – happy to be by his brothers and …
“ red? “ another voice rang out. catching the turtle out of his thoughts as his father had tears welding in his eyes.
rushing over, splinter engulfed the taller one into a hug, crying into his plastron. he finally had all of his sons with him. even if it was in a really poor circumstance, he had them. a moment of silence passed.
with that, the hamato family was united in the sky. yeah, april was out being a human and living her life, but the brothers finally had one another again.
raph didn’t have to worry about outliving them again.