A Christmas Carol (Tmnt 2012 version)

S T A V E O N E

Raph's Ghost

Raph was dead, to begin with. There is no doubt whatsoever about that. Laying in a coffin was Raphael's pale green body, with two shillings on his eyes, Leo leaned over the casket, staring at Raph's emotionless face, "yes. Quite dead." Leo's breath clouds in the air, he turned towards the clergyman, the clerk, the undertaker and the chief mourner, "as a doornail." Leo finished. The balding undertaker and his young assistant nod, "certificate of death, sir." The undertaker hands Leonardo the death certificate, the turtle laid it down on a nearby table, snatching a quill and signed it with his signature on the witness line. He threw the quill back into its ink pot and the undertaker slides the certificate away from the table.
As Leo turns the undertaker expectantly holds out his hand, the kind undertaker's face smiled warmly, his hand hovering in the air. Leo glares at the balding man and reached into his coat, taking out a bag that held his money. He opens his money bag and extracts a single gold coin, he stares at it reluctantly then places it in the undertaker's palm with a heavy sigh. But the undertaker's arm remained extended and he slowly leans forward, Leo sees this and coils, with his gaze fixed on Leo the undertaker raises an eyebrow. Leo wiggles his fingers then lowers them into his money bag and retrieves another coin, he grits his teeth as he faces the undertaker. The mutant's hand trembles as he holds the shilling above the undertaker's waiting palm, with hesitation he finally released the coin.
The young assistant grabs the cover of the coffin and was about to place it in its rightful place, "Stop!" Leo shouted as he thrust an accusing hand towards the young boy, the assistant moved back and held the cover of the coffin close to him, "Back away! Praddock." Glaring at the young boy he leans once more over Raph's coffin, Leo reaches inside and removes the shillings from his ex-coworkers eyes, holding them up for the assistant to see, he rubs the coins together "Tuppence is tuppence." Leo's lips press into a tight frown as he sets the coins in his money bag, Leo turned and faced the undertakers disbelieving gaze, Leo hummed and walked past him, leaving the building.

Outside Leo walks silently in the bitter snow, he was gaining a sore headache from the singing in the distance of a Christmas chorus, he walks towards them and then stops and glares at each of the 6 singers, slowly each singer broke out of their tune and stared uneasily at the mutant. Leo glances down at a young boy who hides his collection cup, another cowers away and an old woman placed a protective hand on their shoulders. Once Leo was pleased with the silence he continued forward, as he walks off a caroller nod's towards her family and they began singing again. except, quietly this time.
As Leo walked he stopped at the end of a road where a carriage had gone past, Leo's frosty blue eyes landed on two boy's shouting a whooping as they glided on the ice, holding on to the carriage, Leo said nothing and continued forward once more, quickening his pace, ignoring all the jolly that was surrounding him by keeping his head low to avoid everything.

A market had covered a whole street, people showing other pedestrians magic tricks, fresh food and so much more fun activities, two boys use sticks to push hoops down a street, skipping sideways to keep up, they took a turn but quickly stopped and ran away once they saw Leo walking toward them.
Standing at the door of a door front Leo pulls keys out of his pocket. Once Leo steps inside he closes the door. He was at his own business building, called 'Leonardo & Raphael'.

Seven Christmas eves later

A man walks down the desolate street past the dimly lit bay window of 'Leonardo & Raphael'. Inside Leo sits at a desk and eyes a collection of coins sitting on top. He slides the coins toward him, counting them one by one, then pushes them into his hand.
In an adjacent room, a candle burns on a small isolated desk, and two hands in fingerless gloves reach toward its glowing flame. A mutant turtle in a mask of purple holds a quill in one hand as he warms his fingers by the candle, but the small flame just wasn't enough. He grimaces as he pulls back his hands and curls his fingers into shivering fists. Puffing out a cloudy breath he eyes a locked box on the floor labelled 'coal' and then shifts his gaze to a set of keys sitting on the table in front of Leo. As Leo glances up, the clerk who is named Donnie quickly looks away.
The front door was suddenly opened and then a mutant turtle with freckled cheeks and a light blue mask appears in the room, his name was Frend, Leo's nephew.