When the Sky Falls- TMNT X ROTTMNT Crossover

Chapter Five: Familiarities?

((Sometimes, my genius is just too much to handle))

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It seemed that time had slowed to more of a crawl, at the moment. The time ticked by slow, as the turtled looked at the stranger in front of themselves. This random fifth turtle that had no more energy to scream and had simply resorted to paranoid crying. Raph tried to let him work through whatever he was experiencing on his own- but the tugging at his heart was making it hard.

As an older brother, the first thing he wanted to do was comfort. This turtle looked a lot like his siblings, despite the notable differences. He wanted to hug him and tell him that it was okay. He wanted to whisper to him, and let him know to just relax and that no one was going to hurt him.

"Maybe we should just leave him alone...?" Donnie offered awkwardly, before looking between the other turtles. Out of all of the other turtles there, and their elden father rat- he seemed to be the least effected- besides a small tilt of his head and what looked like a grimace.

Raph looked to the purple banded brother, before sighing. He knew that Don was concerned in his own way. However, Donnie's way of expressing concern was always something out of right field. His lack of empathy was mainly in voice and epression- rather than in action.

Hell, if Don didn't care the least about the stranger sobbing on the floor in front of all of them- he probably would have tried to use one of his many wacked out inventions to make the room quiet again.

Raph could tell that Don was also getting the slightest bit overstimulated. Loud environments with no suitable distractions tended to do that sometimes.

"You all can go. I will stay here. Someone needs to keep an eye on 'em to make sure he don't accidenally hurt 'imself. Y'know?" With that- the largest turtle sibling sat down on the ground, a good 7 feet away from the terrified terrapin. He brought his knees in closer to himself- and hunkered forward a bit- doing his best to make himself appear smaller.

He heard that it worked in some cases, and it didn't in others. One action to try and allieviate at the immense stress in the room was better than no actions taken at all. Raph just sat there in silence, looking toward the turtle as the rest of his siblings and Splinter all left the room.

There was some hushed mumblings heard outside the door but other than that they all departed rather quickly.

". . . Hey lil buddy." He wasn't sure if he should even be trying to talk to the blue eyed turtle in front of him. "I don't know what happened to you, or where ya came from. I just want you to know that me n' my bros won't hurtya. I promise." a large hand extrended it's way toward the quivering guest and that caused him to shy away- becoming even more tense.

Raph couldn't afford to become agitated- not that he would with someone in such a fragile state of mind.

"Hey- hey. I'm... Raph. You can call me Raph." Raphael smiled a little bit, his one fang-like tooth sticking out of his mouth as it always did. " 's Short for Raphael, if you believe I can have such a name." he chuckled a little bit at the partial joke he made.

The turtle in font of him seemed to have a moment of realization as the sobbing soon stopped after several more painful hitches in his throat. A small, barely understandable voice croaked it's way from the back of the terrapins throat.

"Rap...hi..e?" It was slow, and hardly anunciated. Clearly a struggle from start to finish. There was an almost sudden spark of energy within the stranger as he sat up quickly, and shook his head while holding back some more strangled sobbing. This ended up causing him to fall into an intense hiccup fit.

One that was clearly painful, the freckled terrapin brought his hand up to his chest in an attempt to soothe any pain that came from the movement. Nearly everyone did it- despite the only comfort that they got from it only being the fact that they THOUGHT they managed to ease their own pain. It was a lot like little children and bandaids.

That thought in mind, Raphael remembered back to his tot years. Years in which he was almost always playing mother hen, if Splinter was paying no mind to them.

He loved his dad to death, but the amount of stress that he always felt certainly did not help out with the worrywart side of his current possibility. Playing parent or older brother to almost everyone that was younger than him. Whether they liked it or not.

"Hey-hey. You're okay. Take deep breaths. Breathe in and breathe out little buddy. You need the air..." the voice from the red banded turtle was comforting and warm.

To this realization- the freckled turtled calmed himself and leaned back on the wall- before closing his eyes a bit. More tears started to build up in the corners of his baby blues and the tears streamed down his face endlessly. It was always impressive how much someone could cry. Though, with such emotional strain, exhaustion was sure to follow. It always did.

Raphael started to gently scoot closer to the stranger, before leaning forward again. "that's it. Keep breathing like dat, okay? You need to make sure you get all the air you need." He whispered encouragingly as he finally was only a foot and a half in front of the turtle that leaned back in front of himself. He was about to quietly cheer on the stranger, when the terrapins eyes opened once again.

Bloodshot and misty from both being dazed and terrified- the turtle in front of him started to hiccup a bit slower as he brought his hand forward. The movement of his arm without the rush of emotionally run adrenaline made everything look heavier. It was as if he was trying to reach at Raphael with over 7 layers of damp towels on his arm. A struggle to even keep the limb from falling back down on his lap.

A couple more sniffles from the stranger ensured, before he started to whisper.

"Ra... phie... Raphie..." the name was like a kiddie version of Raph. The alagator snapping turtle picked up on him. The kicker for him, though, was the fact that this turtle was saying his name in that certain way. His right eye raised a bit in confusion. However, as now was not the time- he did not question it. "I'm so... so... sorry..." another small sob managed to escape the turtle. Broken and raspier than before.

Raphael could only watch a little bit, earnestly trying to help this poor fellow get everything off his chest, without making him panic again. He couldn't only listen in disdain as smaller, more broken sobs continued to escape from the smaller turtle for several more hours that night.

((To Be Continued))