TMNT One Shots

Enough

Requested by Outlandia

TW: Eating Disorder

(2012 series! Everyone is human!)

It started with a note. Who knew a piece of paper with chicken scratch hand writing would be the start of a seemingly endless nightmare? Raph never expected it. He knew kids could be cruel, and that high school could be dumb. But this? No one prepared him for it. He still remembers how tightly he gripped the note after reading it. His knuckles turned white as the paper crumbled. He chucked it across the hall not wanting to see it anymore. But the word "FATTY" in big ugly letters had stained his mind.

The notes didn't stop coming after that. Each one was worst than the last.

"Keep your shirt on. No one wants to see your tits!"

"Eat enough Tacos today fat-ass?"

"It's no wonder you're so slow in gym tubby"

Some even came with cruel drawings of what was supposed to be him. He quickly started to dread going to his locker knowing what was waiting for him.

He never thought something was wrong with his body before. But now these stupid comments on it were making him second guess himself. He started to stare at himself in the mirror a bit obsessively. No one would say such things so consistently unless there was some truth to it, right? They could pick on him for anything. So why point out these particular "flaws" and nothing else?

And when you're told something enough, you sometimes start to beleive it.

It wasn't long before Raph stopped eating. Every time he even looked at food, those cruel words replayed in his head until he felt queezy.

When he did eat, it was never enough to stop the growling of his stomach.
It only got worse from there.

As days turned into weeks, his appetite grew smaller, and so did he. He looked at himself in the mirror every day. His ribs were starting to show. He was Defitantly skinny. But he still felt gross. It wasn't enough. He wasn't enough. He had to keep pushing. No matter what.

Leo's POV

I know I'm not the only one who's worried about Raph. We've all noticed him skipping out on meals. I brushed it off at first not really thinking too much of it. My first thoutht was that he might have been coming down with something. He did look pretty drained, and a bit pale.

But then I noticed him skipping lunch too. And then breakfast. It wasn't just the meals either. He barely talked to us anymore. When asked what was wrong he always gave the same response. He was just tired.
All he wanted to do now is sleep.

He started to fall behind in track, which really took a toll on him. He went from being one of the best to barely being able to keep up.

Enough was enough. I had to figure out what was wrong.

"Raph?" I said knocking on his door. I only waited a second before pushing it open. I peeked inside and saw Raph standing in front of the mirror. I gasped at the sight. His ribs and spine were practically piercing through his skin. Raph saw me in the mirror and turned around with fearful eyes. He snatched his shirt and quickly threw it over him.

"Raph!" I quickly went over to him. "What the hell is happening? How did you get to be that skinny?! You don't look healthy at all and it's really scaring me!"

Raph didn't respond. He kept his eyes to the floor and his arms crossed over his body.

"Raph, please say something" I pleaded.

He shook his head.

I put a hand on his arm in an attempt to comfort him, but he quickly pulled away. "Get out of here Leo" he growled.

"Please, Raph. I'm just trying to help. I need to know what's going on. Why havnt you been eating?"

"I said go away!" Raph snapped. He stared daggers into my eyes. "This is none of your buisness!"

"I'm your brother, Raph, it is my buisness!" I yelled back. "I don't want to lose you!"

I saw tears starting to overflow from his eyes. "JUST GET OUT OF HERE, WILL YA?!" He shoved me, causing me to stumble back. "I DON'T NEED YOUR HELP! I DON'T NEED ANY OF YOU SO JUST LEAVE ME ALONE!"

My jaw clenched and my hands bawled up into fists at my sides. "Fine" I muttered. Then I left the room.

-

Raph hasn't spoken a word to me since yesterday.

I feel terrible. I shouldn't have left him alone. Even if he didn't want it, he really does need us now more than ever. But he always pushes us away. I told the others what had happened that same day. Every time someone tried to talk to him he would just yell and even physically remove us from his room if he had to. His anger had completely consumed him at this point.

As much as we hated his new attitude, it didn't change the way we felt about him. We knew he was just struggling. We had to tell Splinter. He would know what to do.

We all searched the house for him, only to find he wasn't here. Neither was Raph. It wasn't until Donnie noticed the Calender did we find out where they were. Raph had a track meat today.

"Come on" I said grabbing my car keys.

The car had just barely come to a stop when we were already getting out. We looked around looking for either Raph or Splinter.

"There's Dad!" Mikey pointed to the crowd on the bleachers. The rest of us  spotted him and we quickly made our way over.

"Dad!" I called out.

"Boys!" Splinter said looking over to us. "What's going on, is everything okay?"

"Father, where's Raphael?" Donnie asked him.

"He's over there at the starting line" Splinter replied. "They're about to start".

A moment later a blank shot through the air and the runners took off, including Raph.

"We need to talk about him" I said getting closer to Splinter.

"Whatever do you mean, my son?"

"The other day, I walked into his room and...Dad, he's really not doing well. He's skinny. Really skinny. He's sick. He won't eat, and he won't tell us why".

Splinter didn't reply right away. He looked at all of us, then to Raph who was sprinting down the track. A look of worry washed over him. "Oh Raph..." He sighed. "How could I have not seen it sooner?"

"It's okay Dad" I put a hand on his shoulder. "None of us noticed until recently. He's been real distant lately. And He's always hiding under baggy clothes. What's important though is that we-"

"Raphie!" Mikey suddenly called out. We all looked over at the track to see Raph laying on the ground unresponsive.

Tbc!