A gentle runaway

Chapter 9 - Home again

Everyone arrives in the Lair, along with a warm and shiny aura that suddenly drove most of the negativity away, the sudden change of the atmosphere gets Master Splinter to wake up from his meditation, showing him the presence of his youngest son, which makes him get up from the floor and leave the Dojo, he walks to the main room where he sees his son again after so long, rushing in and hugging him tightly, almost falling on his knees as he holds him, Michelangelo returns the hug 10 folded, the brothers also get touched by the scene, so they join in and the family hug makes it more clear that the family is together again.

Once they all split up, Splinter calls Michelangelo to the Dojo to have a talk, but April and his brothers refuse to let him out of their sights and end up tagging along to hear what does Mikey has to say about what happened, they all reunite in the Dojo, Splinter sitting in front of the tree, Michelangelo sitting in front of him facing him, and his brothers and friends are all around, Mikey looks relatively calm, but inside he's freaking out, everyone has their eyes on him and it's time for interrogation, his father begins.

🐀 - "So... where have you been all this time?"

🟠 - "Well... about that... I was...."

Mikey tried to think out a lie or cover up story for what had happened, but he couldn't bring himself to lie again, so he chose honesty.

🟠 - *sigh* "I was in a human's home, her name was Barbara, she... was helping me heal..."

🔵 - "That doesn't explain what happened when that building fell on top of you."

🔴 - "And even if that was the case, what took you so long?!"

🐀 - "Silence! .... proceed, my son."

🟠 - "W-when t-the... t-the..."

Master Splinter put his hand on michelangelo's shoulder.

🐀 - "it's ok now, there is no need to be nervous."

🟠 - ".... W-when that building feel on me, I went unconscious for a while, not sure how long but... hum... well, I woke up at some point and... made my way out, I was thinking of coming home but I wasn't sure if I would make it, my whole body was hurting a lot and it felt like I was about to pass out, I wasn't sure of what exactly I was doing, and I didn't wanted to be a bother by acting like dead weight."

🟣 - "What!? What makes you... no, what MADE you think that?"

🟠 - "I-I I don't know man!! I was scared and hurt, possibly about to die, I wasn't thinking straight!!!"

🐀 - "Enough now! And then, how did you met this... Barbara..."

🟠 - "Well I... scaped from the reckage and... Uhhh... I met her not long after...

🐀 - "So she found you hurt all alone?"

🟠 - "Y-yes, Sensei.

🐀 - "And so? What happened next?"

🟠 - "She... took me to her house, it's far away, I'm not sure exactly where was it, but I can say it was atleast in another state giving the time it took to get there and to come back."

🐀 - "So is that related to the reason of why you didn't came back sooner?"

🟠 - "Yeah, this also."

🐀 - "Also?"

🟠 - "Well, she helped me a lot back there, and after I got better, I tried to make up for it and helped her too for a while, and for a moment... I forgot... to... come home."

🔴 - "YOU FORGOT!!?!?"

🐀 - "RAPHAEL!!!"

🟠 - "I-I-I am sorry!!!"

🐀 - "It's ok, please continue."

🟠 - "...... I-I spent some time around there, and before I noticed, time flew like the wind, and I lost track of it, at that point I thought that what I die was already done, I thought if I came back all of the sudden... you would hate or be really mad at me, I imagined you thought I was dead and I didn't know if I should break your belief."

🐀 - "And why would we do such a thing?"

🟠 - "Because I've been gone for too long, I chose to stay there, I chose to leave everything behind to start a new life elsewhere, I left my responsibilities unattended for and abbandoned my family when they needed me the most!! I'm an embarrassment, and I'm so so sorry for being so stupid and dumb, I... I assumed that if you kept thinking I was dead, I wouldn't have to come back, all of our enemies are gone so... there was no reason why you would need me around, it's not like I am that important anyway, but I thought if I came back all of the sudden.... you'd hate me, after what I did... I betrayed you, I betrayed my family.

🟣 - "W-what?..."

🔵 - "Mikey...."

🟠 - "And all because I was too weak to keep up with you all, I was still exhausted from the near end of the world apocalypse we had gone through but you guys were already up and running like if nothing was wrong, like if nothing happened, and I was still too scared to go outside, afraid we would get hurt again, I'm a failure..."

🔴 - "Mikey."

🟠 - "I-I will understand if you don't forgive me for what i did, I deserve it, I should have known better, just please... don't hate me?"

🔴 - "MIKEY!!"

🟠 - "!!!"

🐀 - "RAPHAEL!! Lower your tone!"

🔴 - "NOT NOW SENSEI!! MIKE, DO YOU HEAR YOURSELF? "Not as important"? "Idiot"?! "Dumb"!?! What on the world made you think that?! I should punch your skull opened for saying this sort of crap, no one talks crap about MY little brother other than ME, and you know that!! Where the hell did you even got the idea to run away from?! Was that Barbo Lady you were just talking about??"

🟠 - "What?! No! No! No! You got it all wrong, she would never do this, any of this, I was just being a selfish fool!!"

Raphael walks up to his brother as he talks and grabs him by the shoulders, making everyone's expression turn into shock and worry for what he will probably do.

🔴 - "GET YOUR DARN HEAD BACK IN PLACE YOU WALNUT BRAIN!!!"

Raphael began shaking Michelangelo violently.

🔴 - "THIS IS WHAT YOU GET FOR SCARING THE LIVING SHELL OUT OF ME YOU PEA-HEAD!!!"

🔵 - "Raph!!! Let him go, we can talk!!"

🐀 - "Raphael! Put your brothers down!!"

After his family barged in the discussion and separed the fight they were all able to settle down for a moment until Splinter said.

🐀 - "My children, can you please excuse me and Michelangelo for a second so I can discuss with him something in private?"

🔵🔴🟣🟡 - "Hai, Sensei."

As they left, only Splinter and Mikey were left in the room, he still had some questions to do before letting him leave.