The Sewer Twins [PAUSED]

Chapter 2 - Growing apart

About 3 years pass by, the kind old man has been trying his best to raise the two turtles with nothing but love and respectful education, managing to grow two great and cute little boys that were his pride and joy, Michelangelo and Raphael were like the sun and the moon, practically opposite but they love and rely on eachother for everything, it's like they refused to separate no matter what, they couldn't stay to far away from eachother for long or even leave the other's sight, if one wanted to do something the other would tag along, if one had to go to another room, like the bathroom, the other would follow, it took a couple of years until they started to not enter the restroom together for privacy, but they still sat by the door waiting for the other to come out, this was both cute and concerning for the old man, that had never had any experience with children and is unsure if this behavior is or not normal.

The boys are as happy as any child out there, they were playful and loved playing all sorts of games together, Mikey was a bit taller than Raph even though he's younger, not that it bothers Raph in any way, Mikey is sweet and caring to everything and everyone, having to be carefully watched because he would sometimes leave the main place and wonder around the sewers bringing all kinds of filthy animal and garbage, Raphael was quite energetic and brave, always finding ways to cause some mischief whenever he's bored, he is like a protector for his little brother and he always call his big brother, his hero.

Over the years, the old man started to feel that his time was coming, and he didn't know what to do about the boys, maybe they be alright if he teaches them how to survive, he leaves them everything he had, some furniture, his treasures, even a big jar for coins he was saving up, the sudden change caught the boys off guard and brought their attention to their caretaker, they go to him to satisfy their curiosity and get answers for the questions pilled up in their little heads.

"What is going on?"

"Why is he acting so weird?"

"What are all of those gifts for?"

"Is he sick or something?"

The old man notices that his actions weren't covering up what was happening to him, he had no easy option to tell them but he knew this would devastate their little hearts, but not telling them would be worse, he took Michelangelo and Raphael to the surface for a learning experience on how to survive life and about the passing away of people in our lives, he shows them some tricks for them to survive out in the world  on their own and in the end of the night, they climbed up the building where the grampa lived all way up to the rooftop where the three of them sat down and stared at the beauty of the city of New York at night, the boys understood that their grandpa was going to be gone soon, they were really sad, he was like a father to them, and they were about to turn 9 years old soon and there's a change that they might not have anyone other than eachother to celebrate with.

Gladly, he was able to participate of the little boys adoption anniversary, gifting them two mementos for them to always have something personal to remebered him, he gave young Michelangelo a painting stand and an old hoodie he loved very much, as for Raphael he gave him a chain clock and a box of tools for him to use, the boys fall in love with the gifts that they keep as their own treasures, this brings immense joy to the old man's heart, and 5 months later, he passed away peacefully, the day he didn't came to see the boys, they knew exactly what had happened and were devastated to lose their papa, they had a long griefing period but they were able to move on eventually, getting back on their feet and beginning a new chapter of their lifes together, they were on their on now and had to use everything they learned to get by, even learning new ways to get what they needed.

Mikey began to fall in love with arts, all kinds of it, like dance, music, reading, drawing, painting, basically anything that he could reach and feed it to his wild imagination, Raphael was more interested on fighting, he thought it was cool and useful, two things he really values on a skill, but when Mikey began showing him some books, he ended up sharing a literature passion with his brother for history and mythology, he had a preference for European and Asian History and Greek mythology, everything was just so incredibly interesting that the two brothers would read together in a sort of book reading club they made, they would build a pillow fort to read and talk about the books they liked and were currently reading, and once they ran out of books to read.

Michelangelo found out that a local library was throwing away unsold books and movies so he began collecting them and taking them all home, Raph liked that his brother found somethings that bring him so much happiness and gladly joins in every time for a movie night, Mikey was a huge fan of comic books, and while his brother had his own interests, he had his own preferences to literature, like Asian culture and mythology, specially Japanese, and he likes American history and myths too (North, Center and South American to be specific), even though, he prefers more fantasy like stories, like fairytales, or sci-fi, or just character focused romances and stuff, he also reads sometimes about psychology or anthropology, that many types of books he reads causes his patchwork of knowledge quite scattered all over the place, he can tell a thousand mythological tales from Japan but he can barely tell any actual historical event that happened there.

Raphael was a provider, he would always be the one putting more effort to getting all they needed to survive, like food, he would also bring some trinkets for his little bro to enjoy himself and use it on his "art projects" he would be making every now and then, Raph found some self-defense lessons on the pile of cds and vhs his brother brought and used it to train his skill on fighting and defending, he was determined to learn all he could to one day, if something happens to his younger brother, he'll be there to save him, he would never let anyone hurt his brother and if anyone tried, he would release hell upon the filth of a person who dared to mess with him and his family, Mikey knew him very well, so his passive and gentle attitude was a contrast and to Raph's intense and tough one, they balanced eachother out, the dynamic that is pretty smooth for them.

Meanwhile, in the other side of the city, the Splinter and his sons trained the art of Ninjitsu, they also lived underground but instead of the sewers they lived in the basement of an abandoned building that was built on unstable land, and was left alone to not risk the conditions of the ground since it could cause a small landslide, the young turtles, Leonardo and Donatello are very skilled with their respective weapons, being twin katanas and a staff like spear, they were growing up fast and learning just as much, Splinter struggled at first to take care of two young children, but he also learned with time and patience, he was training them so they were going to be the best ninjas they could possibly be one day, the boys really liked the idea.

(yeah, I changed the bō to being a staff with a retractable blade on top, because why not!)